If you read through the references, and I agree, the position Dell has found itself is quite a pickle. They have an exclusive relationship with Intel (why? can only be for better pricing: nothing else in it for Dell as far as I can see).
I think this is there segue into an AMD partnership and the boutique PC market. In the same way that Ford owns Bentley, I don't see them changing the business model in any way. With any luck they will use their economies of scale to invest in R&D to produce some very good kit (like their (US-only) XPS Quad-GPU machines, for example), and even bring some other added value to the table: doubtful it will be cheaper prices (this market being differentiated by performance, not cost).