Is Dellophone a smart idea?

In a move many seem to think is doomed to failure, Dell will apparently be launching a Google Android-based smartphone in the US on AT&T's network in early 2010.

The move, which has been widely reported by the media and panned by most analysts, won't be Dell's first attempt to enter the smartphone space, but it will be the firm's first effort in the US since its rather disastrous Axim WinMo PDA failed to take off and was shelved in 2007.

The computer-maker has been selling its Dell Mini 3i Android phone in China for a while now and has clearly decided the 3i should see the world and travel over to the American market. Of course, in the US, the device will have to pit itself against such heavyweights as Apple, RIM, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola - a not undaunting task.

But with market research outfits like iSuppli reporting that global smartphone shipments are expected to shoot up 27.9 per cent to 235.6-million units in 2010, Dell obviously doesn't want to miss out on the action, especially in a market segment with such high margins.

Dell isn't the only computer-maker coveting high smartphone margins, either. Both Acer and ASUS have announced smartphone strategies, whilst Samsung is coming out with its own Android phone in the US on Sprint Nextel's network, November 1^st.

Pictures courtesy of mobile163.com

Dell's phone will ship with a touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera and, according to sources at Mobile Crunch, it should be slimmer than the iPhone. But thinner doesn't always mean winner, with Mobile Crunch's source noting the phone, in its Chinese makeup, "felt cheap and plasticky."

Regardless, the phone will provide yet another boost for Google's mobile Android platform whilst dealing another swift kick in the teeth to Microsoft's already-disliked Windows Mobile 6.5.

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