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The rumors have been around for years, but as TG Daily reports , analysts expect Dell to announce a smartphone at GSMA, the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona in mid-February.

An announcement by Dell on smartphones was expected in 2008 but never materialized.

"We believe it is likely inevitable that Dell enter the cell phone space given the cannibalization of PCs by smartphones and highly functional mobile devices," wrote Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu in a research note. Dell discontinued its Axim series of PDAs in April 2007.

Dell discontinued its Axim series of PDAs in April 2007. These devices ran on Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform. So it shouldn't surprise anyone should Dell turn back to Redmond for a smartphone OS.

However, rumor has it Dell decide to go with Google's Android platform, which is free and open source, or Nokia's Symbian/S60, which is headed the open source way, should it enter the smartphone market.