"Our goal is to be a leader in low-end storage, too," said Joe Tucci, CEO of the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company, during a conference call discussing second-quarter earnings. The AX150 is not sufficient, and an entire product family is needed, he said. The company's April reseller agreements with Intel and NEC hint at the company's direction, he said.

Tucci did not say when the new products would be available.

Tucci said he was "deeply disappointed" in EMC's quarterly earnings, adding that execution was not up to EMC standards.

Revenue for the second quarter of 2006 was US$2.57 billion, 10 percent higher than the $2.34 billion reported for the second quarter of 2005. Net income for the quarter was $279 million, or 12 cents per share, compared with second-quarter 2005 earnings per share of 13 cents. The company had expected to earn at least $2.66 billion and 13 cents per share this quarter and issued a warning earlier this week that it would miss that target.

Tucci blamed the shortfall on the transition from the Symmetrix DMX2 to the DMX3. He said the company was overstocked with DMX2s and had insufficient inventory of the DMX3s. In addition, a number of customers bought the DMX3 along with several other products but stipulated that they all be shipped together, which meant that EMC did not realize the sales from those additional products as well, he said.