Android Powered Dell Smartphone?

[happyandyv]

Has anybody else been reading about Dell getting into smartphones?

Would you buy?

by Matt Burns on January 14, 2009


The smartphone market used to be reserved just to business types and nerds, but now everyone wants an iPhone or Palm Pre; Dell likely wants a piece of that action and might have a smartphone ready. It could be unveiled as soon next month at 3GSM or the Mobile World Congress. But does Dell have the goods needed to make a killer smartphone that stands out from the cool kids?
The Palm Pre made a huge splash last week at CES, partly due to the sleek looking form factor which is a large departure from the Palm Treo or Centro stodgy form factor. Dell would have to find the same mojo ’cause design matters these days. A great OS (more on that later) doesn’t mean squat if it’s loaded on grey box-type phone.

Thankfully, Dell picked up the driving force behind the Motorola RAZR back in 2007 and slapped the title President of Consumer Business on his nameplate. Hopefully, if Dell does indeed have a smartphone coming, Ron Garriques will be able to steer the huge PC maker in the right direction in terms of design and also away from the Windows Mobile Platform.
Windows Mobile is dying a slow death. It’s still one of the most popular operating systems on mobile devices, right behind Symbian in terms of install base, but hopefully Dell isn’t betting it all on the antiquated platform. What a Dell smartphone really needs is a solid Android or Symbian UI for the smartphone, but chances are Dell will turn to Microsoft’s deep coffers.
Dell and Microsoft have a long history together and they both need an ace in the latest smartphone marathon. But unless Microsoft has recoded Windows Mobile into a stellar system, this phone would be simply cast aside in favor of a better OS no matter how good the hardware happens to be.
So, here’s hoping that Dell does have a non-Windows Mobile smartphone ready to drop and that it’s competitively priced too. Oh, and on a good carrier.

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/01/...er-smartphone/

[rynosaur]

Yeah, I have an '07 e521 desktop and it's been rock-solid. I like their stuff. Does this mean they're not selling their warmed-over iPaq anymore?

[ickyfehmleh]

Isn't Dell a Windows house? Why wouldn't they opt for Windows Mobile?

[rynosaur]

Isn't Dell a Windows house? Why wouldn't they opt for Windows Mobile?

They are marginally in the Linux/Ubuntu bidness as well. They offer one desktop with Ubuntu installed and supported. Meh.

[ickyfehmleh]

They are marginally in the Linux/Ubuntu bidness as well. They offer one desktop with Ubuntu installed and supported. Meh.

Do they still charge you for a Windows license if you go that route?

[birdman81484]

Do they still charge you for a Windows license if you go that route?

I frackin hope not. Hahaha I bet you have to pay for support after a year though. LOL, ubuntu support from Dell?

Customer: "Synaptic Package thingy."

Dell Customer Service: What? Did you try a system restore....?

[rynosaur]

Funny. Paid contract Ubuntu support is actually provided by Canonical for a year or two, if I remember correctly. I went the Vista way in 2007 cuz I didn't want to pay for it (vista license) later on. I ordered Vista and all I got was a slow version of XP that needed updates every other day. hehe

[ickyfehmleh]

I frackin hope not. Hahaha I bet you have to pay for support after a year though. LOL, ubuntu support from Dell?

Customer: "Synaptic Package thingy."

Dell Customer Service: What? Did you try a system restore....?

You laugh but there was a well-publicized case of someone buying a Toshiba laptop and being charged for Windows even though he never booted into Windows. That behavior may have changed after the DOJ attempted to slap the wrists of Microsoft.

[happyandyv]

Microsoft charges the manu. a lot to use winMo...

on top of that it just kinda sucks unless you have every last hardware option and want tos pend your whole day surfing to find software for it... plus anybody who has an xbox or vista knows that Microsoft asks its users for money now around every corner....

Can't even play a game without being given the opportunity to enter a credit card to buy game experience...

I have 3 dell dimension dekstops that are my media centers around my house (except for my main movie box for HD, etc) and they are all the most soldiering computers I have ever used. They're simple little 2.4 single core pentiums with a few gigs of ram and they kick butt. They are 5 years old and I still wouldn't trade em.

you better bet I would buy a dell phone.

[Frito]

we use dell's at my work and they are great machines

and on a side note why pay for support for ubuntu, support is google