LOS ANGELES -- Dell is plotting a foray into the cell phone arena as early as next month, making and selling smartphones to revitalize a business walloped by crumbling PC sales and pitting the firm against Apple, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The world's No. 2 maker of PCs, which has been designing prototypes for over a year, is focusing on smartphones -- the class of high-end devices that encompasses Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry, the newspaper cited people familiar with the matter as saying.

If launched, the phones will be based on Google's Android operating system and Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, it said. One model will even feature a touchscreen, not unlike the iPhone's, the Journal reported.

However, Dell has not finalized its plans and may still abandon them, the Journal added without elaborating.

See here for the rest of this article at InternetNews.com.