Basis of Presentation (Policies)	9 Months Ended
Basis of Presentation (Policies)	Sep. 30, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Company	Company EMC Corporation (“EMC”) and its subsidiaries develop, deliver and support the information technology (“IT”) industry’s broadest range of information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure technologies, solutions and services. EMC manages the Company as part of a federation of businesses: EMC Information Infrastructure, VMware Virtual Infrastructure, Pivotal and Virtustream. EMC’s Information Infrastructure business provides a foundation for organizations to store, manage, protect, analyze and secure ever-increasing quantities of information, while at the same time improving business agility, lowering cost, and enhancing competitive advantage. EMC’s Information Infrastructure business comprises three segments – Information Storage, Enterprise Content Division and RSA Information Security. The results of Virtustream are currently reported within our Information Storage segment. EMC’s VMware Virtual Infrastructure business, which is represented by EMC’s majority equity stake in VMware, Inc. (“VMware”), is the leader in virtualization infrastructure solutions utilized by organizations to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume IT resources. VMware’s virtualization infrastructure solutions, which include a suite of products and services designed to deliver a software-defined data center, run on industry-standard desktop computers and servers and support a wide range of operating system and application environments, as well as networking and storage infrastructures. EMC’s Pivotal business (“Pivotal”) unites strategic technology, people and programs from EMC and VMware and has built a new platform comprised of next-generation data, agile development practices and a cloud independent platform-as-a-service (“PaaS”). These capabilities are made available through Pivotal’s three primary offerings: Pivotal Cloud Foundry, the Pivotal Big Data Suite and Pivotal Labs. Proposed Transaction with Dell On October 12, 2015, EMC entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) among EMC, Denali Holding Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Parent”), Dell Inc., a Delaware corporation, and Universal Acquisition Co., a Delaware corporation and direct wholly owned subsidiary of Parent (“Merger Sub”), pursuant to which, among other things and subject to the conditions set forth therein, Merger Sub will merge with and into EMC (the “Merger”), with EMC continuing as the surviving corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent. At the effective time of the Merger (“Effective Time”), each share of EMC common stock issued and outstanding will be canceled and converted into the right to receive (i) $24.05 in cash and (ii) a number of shares of common stock of Parent designated as Class V Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Class V Common Stock”), equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (A) 222,966,450 by (B) the aggregate number of shares of EMC common stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time. The aggregate number of shares of Class V Common Stock issued as Merger Consideration in the transaction is intended to represent 65% of EMC’s economic interest in the approximately 81% of the outstanding shares of VMware currently owned by the EMC, reflecting approximately 53% of the total economic interest in the outstanding shares of VMware. Upon completion of the transaction, Parent will retain the remaining 28% of the total economic interest in the outstanding shares of VMware. Based on the estimated number of shares of EMC common stock at the closing of the transaction, EMC shareholders are expected to receive approximately 0.111 shares of Class V Common Stock for each share of EMC common stock. Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, EMC may solicit alternative acquisition proposals from third parties until 11:59 p.m. on December 11, 2015. The Merger Agreement contains specified termination rights for both Parent and EMC, including that, in general, either party may terminate if the Merger is not consummated on or before December 16, 2016. If EMC terminates the Merger Agreement, we are required to pay Parent a termination fee of $2.5 billion (or, if EMC terminates for a superior proposal prior to December 12, 2015, the termination fee payable by EMC to Parent will be $2 billion). If Parent terminates the Merger Agreement, they are required to pay a termination fee of $4 billion under specified circumstances, and in certain instances, an alternative termination fee of $6 billion. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2016. The completion of the Merger is subject to certain conditions including EMC shareholder approval, the expiration or termination of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the receipt of certain other regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions and the effectiveness of the registration statement on Form S-4 to be filed by Parent in connection with the registration of shares of Class V Common Stock issuable in connection with the Merger. The Merger Agreement contains representations and warranties customary for transactions of this nature. EMC has agreed to various customary covenants and agreements, including, among others, agreements to conduct its business in the ordinary course during the period between the execution of the Merger Agreement and the effective time of the Merger. In addition, without the consent of Parent, EMC may not take, authorize, agree or commit to do certain actions outside of the ordinary course of business, including acquiring businesses or incurring capital expenditures above specified thresholds, issuing additional debt facilities and repurchasing outstanding EMC common stock. Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, EMC is required to provide Parent with access to EMC’s cash to help fund the Merger consideration. At this time, EMC has not finalized its plan to access such cash and has not determined if there would be a need to repatriate cash to meet the requirements of the Merger. To date, we have asserted our overseas cash as indefinitely reinvested; however if these overseas funds are required to be repatriated to the U.S. in accordance with the Merger Agreement, we may be required to accrue and pay U.S. taxes to repatriate these funds. Other than transaction expenses associated with the proposed Merger, the terms of the Merger Agreement did not impact EMC’s consolidated financial statements as of and for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015.
General	General The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements are unaudited and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information. These consolidated financial statements include the accounts of EMC, its wholly owned subsidiaries, as well as VMware and Pivotal, companies majority-owned by EMC. All intercompany transactions have been eliminated. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in our annual consolidated financial statements have been condensed or omitted. Accordingly, these interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2014 which are contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2015. The results of operations for the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be expected for any future period or the entire fiscal year. The interim consolidated financial statements, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments necessary to fairly state the results as of and for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2015 and 2014.
Net Income Per Share	Net Income Per Share Basic net income per weighted average share has been computed using the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Diluted net income per weighted average share is computed using the weighted average number of common and dilutive common equivalent shares outstanding during the period. Common equivalent shares consist of stock options, restricted stock and restricted stock units, and in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, the shares issuable under our $1.725 billion 1.75% convertible senior notes due 2013 (the “2013 Notes”) and the associated warrants. Additionally, for purposes of calculating diluted net income per weighted average share, net income is adjusted for the difference between VMware’s reported diluted and basic net income per weighted average share, if any, multiplied by the number of shares of VMware held by EMC.
Joint Ventures	Investments in Joint Ventures We make investments in joint ventures. For each joint venture investment, we consider the facts and circumstances in order to determine whether it qualifies for cost, equity or fair value method accounting or whether it should be consolidated. In 2009, Cisco and EMC formed VCE Company LLC (“VCE”), with investments from VMware and Intel. In December 2014, EMC acquired the controlling interest in VCE and, since the date of acquisition, has consolidated VCE’s financial position and results of operations as part of EMC’s consolidated financial statements. Prior to the acquisition of the controlling interest in VCE, we considered VCE a variable interest entity and accounted for the investment under the equity method with our portion of the gains and losses recognized in other expense, net in the consolidated income statements for the majority of 2014. Our consolidated share of VCE’s losses, based upon our portion of the overall funding, was approximately 65% and 64% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, respectively. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, we recorded $101 million and $261 million, respectively, in net losses from VCE and $207 million and $550 million, respectively, in revenue from sales of product and services to VCE.
Reclassifications	Reclassifications Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform with the current year’s presentation. In April 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued updated guidance to clarify the required presentation of debt issuance costs. The amended guidance requires that debt issuance costs be presented in the balance sheet as a direct reduction from the carrying amount of the related debt liability rather than as an asset. We adopted the guidance during the second quarter of 2015, and accordingly, reclassified the debt issuance costs on our consolidated balance sheets. There was no impact to our consolidated income statements or statements of cash flows.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements	Recent Accounting Pronouncements In September 2015, the FASB issued updated guidance related to simplifying the accounting for measurement period adjustments related to business combinations. The amended guidance eliminates the requirement to retrospectively account for adjustments made during the measurement period. The standard is effective beginning January 1, 2016, with early adoption permitted. We do not expect it to have a material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows. In April 2015, the FASB issued guidance to customers about whether a cloud computing arrangement includes software and how to account for that software license. The new guidance does not change the accounting for a customer’s accounting for service contracts. The standard is effective beginning January 1, 2017, with early adoption permitted, and may be applied prospectively or retrospectively. We do not expect it to have a material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows. In May 2014, the FASB issued a standard on revenue recognition providing a single, comprehensive revenue recognition model for all contracts with customers. The revenue standard is based on the principle that revenue should be recognized to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The standard, as amended, is effective beginning January 1, 2018, with early adoption permitted but not earlier than the original effective date of January 1, 2017. The principles may be applied retrospectively to each prior period presented or retrospectively with the cumulative effect recognized as of the date of initial application. We are currently evaluating the adoption method options and the impact of the new guidance on our consolidated financial statements.