Dell enters smartphone market with Android on AT&T
It was perhaps inevitable that AT&T would eventually carry an Android phone, completing the system’s sweep of the major US networks. But it comes from an unlikely manufacturer: computer giant Dell.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the firm is set to launch its first smartphone on the network early next year, but it also in talks with T-Mobile about carrying the device. Reuters says AT&T has already validated the handset as ready for its network.
The handset appears to be an offshoot of Dell’s project to develop the so-called “oPhone” (officially the Mini 3i) for the Chinese market. However, that project is very much still in development, and that handset is 2G only with no Wi-Fi internet; it seems likely the US handset will be more advanced than that. The WSJ sources have only said it will be a touchscreen cameraphone.
The most obvious problem with the handset is that there is no obvious selling point. While Dell has a reputation in the computer market (albeit one that has been mixed at best in recent years), the brand pretty much gets by on the basis that it does an OK job at an OK price without too much hassle: hardly what’s needed to stand out in the crowded smartphone market.
Meanwhile AT&T would struggle to get much response to the marketing angle that it’s the only Android choice if you’ve got your heart set on AT&T service. In the iPhone age, people tend to pick the handset rather than the network.
That simply leaves the two companies to target buyers who want a basic smartphone, apparently without any killer features. That’s a very competitive field and the two companies would probably stand the best chance of success if they can work out a subsidy deal giving a very cheap purchase price.
While there’s certainly no guarantee the Dell smartphone will be a sure-fire success, it does at least make a better proposition than previous reports that it was working on a portable internet device with no phone or music facilities. The WSJ, which also first reported that story, does not say whether that device is still in the works.
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November 13th, 2009
[...] no word yet on reports that Dell has been in serious talks about launching a handset in the U.S. on AT&T and possibly on T-Mobile as well. (It may be significant that the Wall Street Journal, [...]