Dell Inc., the world’s second-largest computer producer, announced on Wednesday it would close all of its 140 U.S. kiosks. The move will be simultaneous with the push of PCs in retail stores. Dell opened its kiosks in 2002 to showcase its products for people who like to see and touch computers before deciding to buy.

"Moving into retail is a prime example of Dell listening to its customers," said Tony Weiss, vice president for Global Consumer business at Dell Inc.

"Ever since we began our journey into retail, we wanted to give customers the opportunity to call, click, or visit Dell and have access to our award-winning products. This move fits in with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving."

The kiosks also enabled customers to talk with sales representatives about computers, digital cameras, printers and other products sold by Dell and ask for information and counseling. Besides Best Buy, Dell already sells computers at stores such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Staples Inc, with more locations to come. The company alleges that Dell computers are available today in more than 10,000 stores worldwide.

"[The kiosks] were very good for the business at the time, and now we're moving into a variety of retail outlets," said Bob Kaufman, a company spokesman, to AP. "This is clearly an instance of Dell listening to customers."

However, many analysts have pointed out that kiosks had a very important disadvantage: customers weren't able to buy products there, they still had to order them over the Internet or the phone. Sales are lagging behind those of HP because Dell did not react in time to the market shift, and the company had to do something, quickly. So it was decided to scrap little-useful kiosks and push PCs through as many retail channels as possible.

Earlier this month, the Texas-based computer maker unveiled its new series of blade servers, called PowerEdge M. According to the company, the PowerEdge M-Series, which is built on  Dell’s Energy Smart technologies consumes up to 19 percent less power than the HP BladeSystem c-Class1 and 12 percent less energy than IBM BladeCenter H. Also, Dell said it new family of servers achieves up to 25 percent better performance per watt than the HP BladeSystem c-Class1.