A Dell phone could be released as soon as next month, running Windows Mobile or Google Android.
While most online pundits are questioning the wisdom of Michael Dell’s latest move, pointing to the immediate problems of the slump, NBR’s take is that the move makes good sense in the medium and long term.
The success of the iPhone and AppStore – and, to a lesser degree, the G1 and Google Android – have busted the mobile phone market wide open. The balance of power is shifting from telcos to phone makers, software writers and customers. And more and more people are spending less and less time connecting to the net via their PC, and more surfing or emailing via their smartphone.
Dell is already well-positioned in the fast-growing netbook market, where ultra-mobile, videocassette-sized laptops are shaping up as a major threat to both PC and smartphone (and which IDC has recently tracked as the fastest growing segment in a contracting New Zealand PC market).
With a Dell cellphone, it would be covering every base.
Smartphones good, PCs bad
While some have pointed to a very slow current quarter for net-capable cellphones, IDC sees a unstoppable macro trend in action. The market tracker says 157 million smartphones were sold during 2008 up 26.9% from 2007.
By 2012, IDC expects smartphone sales to hit 301 million.
In contrast, IDC is already recording a slight year-on-year decline in PC shipments, and Dell’s revenue and profit contracted during its last quarter.
Dell phone details
Getting down to specifics, the Journal says Dell has been trialling different phone designs for more than a year in a project driven by two employees poached from ailing Motorola. One design features an iPhone-style touchscreen, the other a slider keyboard. In terms of the OS, the company is said to have experimented with both Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Google’s open-source Android.
A spokesperson for Dell says the company has not committed to any smartphone release.
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