Once a top tier Windows Mobile PDA vendor, Dell is now down to selling mobile devices from other companies, having given up on its Axim Pocket PC business over the last couple of years. If recent reports and rumors are correct, though, Dell could be looking to make a handheld comeback.
Dell may soon start releasing Windows Mobile devices again, with a focus on GPS-enabled PDAs and smartphones, reports DigiTimes. According to what DigiTimes calls "market sources," Dell's manufacturer and design partner in this endeavor, would be Foxconn Electronics, who's been recruiting handset talent from other Taiwanese handset vendors to get prepared for Dell’s orders. .
Reportedly Dell’s started preparing for its new foray into mobiles shortly after bringing on Motorola's former cell phone division head Ron Garriques to lead its consumer group early last year. It may have started to speed up the process after competitor Acer acquired a smartphone maker, E-Ten Information Systems, for itself earlier early this month.
Today's news follows recent rumors that Dell's developing a smartphone based on Google's Android operating system.
Perhaps Dell' is going to offer both gPhones and Windows Mobiles? Of course, Dell is free to develop both types of devices—after all, one reason Palm's still in business today is because it expanded beyond the Palm OS to Windows Mobile for its smartphones..
Rumors about the possibility of Dell developing a smartphone go back years, at least until 2003, before it seemed to give up on handhelds altogether. With no mobile-device line at all and smartphones being as popular as they are now, the need for Dell to offer something in that product category takes on more urgency today than it way back then, however.
Even if both the Windows Mobile and Android rumors turn out to be true, it's still way too soon to say exactly when this might happen.
Late in 2007, a report in Forbes indicated Dell would release a new converged smartphone/multimedia product sometime in 2008 According to that rumor, Dell was developing the device ith Taiwan’s Quanta.
Should the rumor be true, then it would be an about face or the company, which abandoned the handheld market, creating a huge hole in its producing lineup, earlier this year. That's when Dell discontinued its once popular line of Axim Pocket PCs. It no longer offers a digital audio/MP3 player as well.
