Dell debuts Mini 3 'smart' phone
SEATTLE -- Dell is officially jumping into the "smart" phone market this month in a deal with China's biggest wireless carrier, China Mobile.
The Dell Mini 3, a keyboardless touch-screen phone that runs Google's Android operating system, also will be available in Brazil later this year. The computer maker, based in Round Rock, Texas, would not say when the phone would reach the U.S.
Friday's announcement ends more than two years of speculation that Dell, now the world's third-largest PC company by unit shipments, would expand into the phone business.
The economic downturn abruptly halted growth in the computer industry this year as consumers and businesses held off buying new technology.
Hewlett-Packard, the No. 1 computer maker worldwide, fared better than Dell because its business is more diverse. Acer, a Taiwan-based company, pushed past Dell to the No. 2 spot in the most recent quarter on the popularity of its tiny, inexpensive netbook computers, a category Dell was slow to enter.
Dell, however, was one of the first computer makers to pair up with wireless carriers to sell subsidized netbooks with cellular data plans. One such deal with China Mobile helped lay the groundwork for the Mini 3 launch.
Michael Tatelman, vice president of sales and marketing for Dell's global consumer business, said Dell wants carriers to have some control over the way the phone works. It chose the open-source Android system because it gives Dell many ways to customize the software -- but didn't rule out making phones that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
In China, the Mini 3 will be part of China Mobile's forthcoming OPhone line, a defensive play against the official arrival of Apple's iPhone, which is sold exclusively by the smaller China Unicom.
Tatelman said the Mini 3 sports a 31/2-inch high-definition screen and great sound for listening to music or watching movies without headphones.
source
The Dell Mini 3, a keyboardless touch-screen phone that runs Google's Android operating system, also will be available in Brazil later this year. The computer maker, based in Round Rock, Texas, would not say when the phone would reach the U.S.
Friday's announcement ends more than two years of speculation that Dell, now the world's third-largest PC company by unit shipments, would expand into the phone business.
The economic downturn abruptly halted growth in the computer industry this year as consumers and businesses held off buying new technology.
Hewlett-Packard, the No. 1 computer maker worldwide, fared better than Dell because its business is more diverse. Acer, a Taiwan-based company, pushed past Dell to the No. 2 spot in the most recent quarter on the popularity of its tiny, inexpensive netbook computers, a category Dell was slow to enter.
Dell, however, was one of the first computer makers to pair up with wireless carriers to sell subsidized netbooks with cellular data plans. One such deal with China Mobile helped lay the groundwork for the Mini 3 launch.
Michael Tatelman, vice president of sales and marketing for Dell's global consumer business, said Dell wants carriers to have some control over the way the phone works. It chose the open-source Android system because it gives Dell many ways to customize the software -- but didn't rule out making phones that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
In China, the Mini 3 will be part of China Mobile's forthcoming OPhone line, a defensive play against the official arrival of Apple's iPhone, which is sold exclusively by the smaller China Unicom.
Tatelman said the Mini 3 sports a 31/2-inch high-definition screen and great sound for listening to music or watching movies without headphones.
source
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