Broadband, Tech Education Top Priorities for Next President

The founder of Dell Inc. says he'd tell the next president of the United States that universal broadband access and a better tech education are two of the biggest places the federal government could help the nation to a prosperous future. A question from the crowd asked Dell his advice for the next president, and he said, "Broadband is a big deal, and math and science education is a big challenge." He said virtually 100 percent of Chinese high school students take calculus, while only 12 percent of American students do. We have to do better to compete, he said. And as for broadband, what Americans consider broadband is far slower than Internet connectivity in many other countries -- even relatively small ones like Estonia, he said. Dell also said he sees opportunity in the troubled U.S. auto industry. "When people are panicking and don't know what to do, that's probably the period of greatest opportunity from an investing standpoint. But you have to be open to change and doing things in a new way." Dell said that's certainly true of his company, which has gone from selling computers in zero retail locations a year ago to 13,000 retail locations today. And sales of PCs to individuals now account for less than half of the company's revenue -- the biggest share now comes from sales of servers, software and services to businesses.
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