An apparent scoop suggests Dell has decided to bring its Mini 3i to the US after all, but not in its original form. A contact claims it's due in the "next few months" but that it will be an upgraded version of what was shown recently in China. Build quality should improve, but it would also upgrade from a 3-megapixel camera to a 5-megapixel model.
Dell at a presentation later on Tuesday said it was talking with the "top three to four" carriers about the possibility of offering them phones. The company's consumer product head, former Motorola executive Roland Garriques, didn't name the companies but said Dell wanted to "see what their needs are" in a device. He also outlined a vision of handhelds or other sub-notebooks and saw Dell offering devices between 4 and 12 inches that could interoperate with each other.
Dell's rumored smartphone may only be an Internet-capable handheld, a leak today says. A contact for the Wall Street Journal supports the belief that an Android-based touchscreen device is in the works but that it won't have phone features. It should be slightly larger than the iPod touch and would instead focus on Internet access.
Dell is getting closer to releasing its long-rumored first smartphone, according to a research note by Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Investigations within Dell's supply chain point reportedly indicate that a Dell smartphone is "closer to reality" after roughly two years of discussions with those companies that might offer parts for the device. No specific launch window has been set.
Dell isn't planning to again produce its own smartphones or similar handheld devices "in the near term," company chief Michael Dell said today at the Citi Technology Conference. The founder of the Texas PC maker shot down rumors of an upcoming return to the field and describes any possible move in the future as the eventual reality of the computing industry rather than a deliberate effort on the part of Dell to compete in the smartphone business.
Dell is resurrecting its handheld business in the wake of Acer's buyout of E-TEN, market contacts have claimed. Although Dell has repeatedly denied smartphone rumors that have surfaced over the past few months, new information suggests the Texas PC maker wants to return to the Windows Mobile device market it abandoned when it cancelled the Axim last year in a bid to prevent Acer from gaining marketshare in that space. Rather than offer strict PDA-only functions, however, the new Dell handhelds would offer both GPS mapping and smartphone features.
Dell today denied claims that it would release a phone developed with Google at next month's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. Company spokeswoman Anne Camden explains that Dell neither has any product to announce at the event nor has any plans to attend. The official did not explicitly confirm or deny the possibility of a phone at any point in the future, making any announcement unlikely until considerably later in the year at the earliest.
Both Google and Dell are collaborating on a handset, says a new claim by ad magazine MarketingWeek. Reportedly contacting "senior industry sources," the publication believes that the two firms will announce a phone as soon as the Mobile World Congress show in mid-February. Few details are available of the purported development, though the device would most likely be powered by Google's Linux-based Android mobile operating system and may serve as a vehicle for promoting the software to other handset makers.
