Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is flexing some muscles these days. Speaking to CIO Australia in Sydney yesterday (3/29), Dell's Vice President and global head of marketing Andy Lark (pictured) went on the offensive against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL):

"I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary,” Lark said. “[Apple has] done a really nice job, they’ve got a great product, but the challenge they’ve got is that already Android is outpacing them."

Lark went on to predict that Apple will fail in its effort to conquer the enterprise tablet market, and that his company's tablet PCs with Windows would win out:

Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.

New York fund manager Barry Ritholtz came out bullish on Dell last week in a Yahoo Breakout appearance. Here's his thesis, at the 1:15 mark:

Ritholtz: "Dell is really an interesting name that's been in the doghouse for awhile... they bring back the founder [Michael Dell], very Apple-like... he seems to be a sharp, get things done type of guy... but that's not why we bought it... the stock got cheap enough, the valuation got low enough, they seemed to get their act together and the stock is moving in the right direction... you mention Dell to people and they look at you [cringes]... mention Apple to people a decade ago and they said the same thing."

Here are the Covestor models that are long Dell, as of end of day 3/28/11:

• Cash Flow from Jose Betancourt
• Large Cap Value from Bristlecone
• Performance with Protection from Leif Eriksen
• Global Growth Brands from Leif Eriksen

And these two models are short Dell, as of end of day 3/28/11:

• Bottom-Up Analysis from EPIC Advisors
• Bottom-Up Analysis Aggressive from EPIC Advisors

Sources:

"Apple iPad will fail in the enterprise: Dell" Lisa Banks, CIO 3/29/11
http://www.cio.com.au/article/381337/apple_ipad_will_fail_enterprise_dell/

"Barry Ritholtz on the Bull, the Bear and Candy Bars"
Matt Nesto, Yahoo Breakout March 22, 2011
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/barry-ritholtz-bull-bear-candy-bars-20110322-174944-915.html