EMC 2007 Annual Report Download - page 11

Competition
We compete with many companies in the markets we serve, including companies that offer a broad spectrum of IT products and services and others that
offer specific information storage, content management, security or server virtualization products or services. We believe that most of these companies
compete based on their market presence, products, service or price. Some of these companies also compete by offering information storage, content
management or virtualization-related products or services, together with other IT products or services, at minimal or no additional cost in order to preserve or
gain market share.
We believe that we have a number of competitive advantages over these companies, including product, distribution and service. We believe the
advantages in our products include quality, breadth of offerings, performance, functionality, scalability, availability, interoperability, connectivity, time-to-
market enhancements and total value of ownership. We believe our advantages in distribution include the world's largest information infrastructure-focused
direct sales force and a broad network of channel partners. We believe our advantages in service include our ability to provide our customers with a full range
of expertise before, during and after their purchase of solutions from us or other vendors.
Seasonality
We generally experience the lowest demand for our products and services in the first quarter of the year and the greatest demand for our products and
services in the last quarter of the year.
Intellectual Property
We generally rely on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and contract rights to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our
technology and products. While our intellectual property rights are important to our success, we believe that our business as a whole is not materially
dependent on any particular patent, trademark, license or other intellectual property right.
We have been granted or own by assignment approximately 1,630 patents issued by, and have more than approximately 1,650 patent applications
pending with, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as a corresponding number of international patents and patent applications. While the duration of
our patents varies, we believe that the duration of our patents is adequate relative to the expected lives of our products.
We have used, registered or applied to register certain trademarks and copyrights in the United States and in other countries. We also license certain
technology from third parties for use in our products and processes and license some of our technologies to third parties.
Employees
As of December 31, 2007, we had approximately 37,700 employees worldwide, of which approximately 5,000 were employed by or working on behalf
of VMware. None of our domestic employees is represented by a labor union, and we have never suffered an interruption of business as a result of a labor
dispute. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Financial Information About Segments, Foreign and Domestic Operations and Export Sales
EMC operates in two businesses – EMC's Information Infrastructure business and the VMware Virtual Infrastructure business. EMC's Information
Infrastructure business consists of three segments – Information Storage, Content Management and Archiving and RSA Information Security.
Sales and marketing operations outside the United States are conducted through sales subsidiaries and branches located principally in Europe, Latin
America and the Asia Pacific region. We have five manufacturing facilities: two in Massachusetts, which manufacture storage products and security products
for the North American markets; two in Ireland, which manufacture storage products and security products for markets outside of North America; and one in
North Carolina, which manufactures storage products for worldwide markets. See Note S to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information about
revenues by segment and geographic area.
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