Dell confirms Android phone for next year

The long, slow saga of Dell's march into the smartphone arena has come to an end. Or has it?

Dell CEO Michael Dell confirmed that the company would be releasing smartphones next year in the United States based on Google's Android platform.

"You'll probably see some products next year in the United States that are family members with some of the things we started in China," he said at the FiReGlobal conference in Seattle. When pressed about what platform the phones would run on, he said, "They'd be Android."

However, Dell also said that the company, which has been dancing around confirmation of its entry into the mobile phone space for months, might look to other platforms. "There are some other open platforms that are emerging that are similar to other businesses we participate in," he said.

Dell did not specify what, if any, carrier the company would partner with. Last week, citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T Mobility might launch a Dell Android phone next year.

In August, the computer maker was part of an event in China to support China Mobile's application platform efforts. A Dell phone, called the Mini 3i, was shown at the event, although Dell said that it was only a "proof of concept" device.      

For more:
- see this Seattle Times article [1]

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