EMC, which became the No. 1 maker of data-storage systems by selling expensive machines to the world's largest corporations, vowed Thursday to sell more products into less expensive markets, an area where it is lagging its competitors.

"We're driving products into all of these segments," EMC Executive Vice President David Donatelli told analysts.

On Thursday EMC said that it is entering the low-end of the data-storage industry by way of a deal with Dell Computer, which agreed to make and sell a new storage device for the data-storage firm.

"We have a handshake," EMC Chief Executive Joe Tucci told analysts at a meeting in New York, describing the agreement with Dell.

Dell has become increasingly important to EMC's strategy to lower costs and penetrate new markets as some of EMC's rivals have taken some of its revenue in the high-end market. Tucci said details still need to be worked out, but he said Dell, the world's second largest PC maker, can make the new device anywhere it sees fit.

No time line has been given for the launch of the product. EMC also will look to its other partners to sell the device.

Tucci told analysts the company will rely more on partners like Dell Computer to penetrate the midtier and low-end markets for storage. EMC also is working with Dell to lower the cost of components by merging their supply chains.

EMC leapfrogged IBM in the 1990s by selling refrigerator-sized machines that can cost more than $1 million apiece. But in the past year, EMC has lost some revenue share in that high-end market as corporations have pared spending and are looking for less expensive devices to store data such as e-mail and credit card transactions.

EMC's revenue and stock price have plummeted amid this shift in the marketplace. A global downturn in spending on information technology also has waylaid tech bellwethers such as EMC.

Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC also was expected to give an update on its financial prospects later Thursday. EMC executives gave more details on how the company will address networked storage and software, which they see as the industry's most promising markets.

Meanwhile, he said EMC's direct sales force is still an important part of the company's future.

"As long as I'm the head of this company, we will have a large direct sales force," Tucci said.

He also pledged EMC will have the "fastest, baddest, meanest, biggest" data-storage devices for the world's largest corporations.

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