Dell and Acer bring PC industry into smartphones
Published: 30 January, 2009
A key trend of 2008 was the entry of the PC makers into the cellphone channel, via their 3G-enabled netbooks and a new trend for these to be sold, with subsidies, by mobile operators. Now the PC companies are eyeing the handset market itself, as the 'mobile internet device' emerges, combining the functionality of notebooks and phones. Dell and Acer are both expected to announce smartphones during this quarter, while Hewlett-Packard has already expanded its iPaq business range into the consumer field.
Dell has mulled the idea of a cellphone entry, on and off, for five years, and the latest rumors gathered pace late last year. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Texas company "has had a group of engineers working on the phones for more than a year", and said the resulting devices, which could see the light of day at next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, come in two formats - touchscreen/virtual keyboard, or slider/keypad - and with a choice of two operating systems, Android or Windows Mobile.
If true, the details of these prototypes would confirm the flight of the US-based vendors and the new handset entrants to Android, which offers lower barriers to entry and lower costs than Symbian. Windows Mobile, of course, will retain some position among PC makers because of close ties with Microsoft and the fact that these vendors will target the general market from an enterprise starting point, as HP has done.
Dell officially says "we haven't committed to anything", and it exited its handheld/PDA business in 2007, but there have been various hints over the past year, some coming from chairman Michael Dell, and some in actions like the acquisition of software house Zing Systems last summer.
Acer is being less cagey and has confirmed it will launch a smartphone at MWC, following the success of its low cost AspireOne netbook. There are few details but multiple touchscreen devices are expected, running Windows Mobile and/or Android (Acer is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, which supports the Google platform).
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