Dell, the industry’s bellwether of pain, saw earnings plunge 63% to $290 million or 15 cents a share on revenues down 23% to $12.3 billion in its first fiscal quarter ended May 1.

Its operating income was off 54% at $414 million. Restructuring cost it nine cents a share or $185 million. Without that charge, Dell earnings would have been 24 cents, a penny better than where the Wall Street models had it but compared to those models revenue was light. It was supposed to be close to $12.7 billion.

Claiming to be able to see demand signals earlier than other companies, Dell CFO Brian Gladden said on the conference call, “I don’t believe there is enough momentum to call a bottom yet.”

On the other hand he doesn’t expect a return to the nadir of February and early March.

However, the company offered no formal guidance, only touchy-feely stuff.

It said in its press release that “Indicators of global IT demand remain mixed, and the broader environment is still challenging. The company is positioning itself for improvement in IT spending by focusing on customer requirements and their experience with Dell, along with internal operating efficiency and costs.”

In a statement a more optimistic Michael Dell added, “Signals about the demand environment are mixed, but we’re preparing for what we believe will be a powerful replacement cycle, with virtualization and managed services playing larger roles in what customers want and Dell provides.”

However, on the conference call Gladden and Dell said that most macro indicators are negative and are most pronounced in the large commercial sector Dell depends on.

They expect most commercial customers to continue to defer spending until the macro economy brightens up and for business from them to be seasonally slow between now and October. They expect “reasonable” performance out of federal, consumer and education.

In the quarter Dell’s operating expenses were down $101 million sequentially and $312 million year-over-year. It said it’s on track to realize $4 billion in annualized cost reductions but it’s otherwise hard to pin down on that subject.

Dell congratulated itself on the operating efficiency and cost management that produced $761 million in cash flow from operations; Dell now has $10.7 billion in the bank. Gladden said the company is “protecting our liquidity for organic and non-organic opportunities.”

Dell has reorganized its reporting structure by accounts.

Large enterprise revenue totaled $3.4 billion, down 31%. Units were down 36% year-over-year and down 11% sequentially. Operating income in the segment was $192 million. Happily, revenue from Dell’s EqualLogic virtualized storage acquisition was up 71%. Otherwise storage was down 17%.

Public revenue was $3.2 billion, down 11%. Units were down 14% year-over-year, and flat sequentially. Operating income was $293 million. Dell said growth in its larger government accounts was partially offset weaker demand in other parts of the business which also covers healthcare and education.

Sales to SMBs dropped 30% to $3 billion. Units were down 30% year-over-year, 4% sequentially. Operating income was $230 million.

Michael remarked that a “series of acquisitions has been integrated into cloud-based services for monitoring and managing IT networks for larger customers, which are now being extended to small and medium businesses, first in the US.”

Consumer revenue was down 16% to $2.8 billion with a breakeven operating income. Shipments fell 12%. Notebooks were up 32%, desktops down 20%. The company is targeting a 1%-2% operating margin for this fiscal year. Dell is now represented in 30,000 consumer retail outlets worldwide.

Overall, mobility units fell 5% with revenues down 20%, desktops units were down 26% with revenues down 34%. Server revenues were down 25% with a 28% drop in units. Enhanced services revenue declined 8% to $1.2 billion though deferred revenue was up 4% to $5.6 billion. Software and peripheral revenues dropped 18%.

Dell’s revenue from the BRIC countries dropped 21% year-over-year but increased 11% sequentially. India was slow but China showed some signs of recovery, it said. Revenues from outside the US now represent 48% of the company’s total take.

Its gross margin in fiscal Q1 was 18.1%.