Report: Dell working on Android gadget
Dell is developing a pocket-size Internet device using Google's Android operating system that could take on Apple's iPod Touch, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Two people who have seen early prototypes of the device told the newspaper it looks like Apple's iPod Touch but slightly larger. And like the iPod Touch, the device isn't expected to include a cellular phone. The device is considered part of a new category of gadgets called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, which are designed to fit into the market between a mobile phone and a laptop or Netbook computer.
The device could go on sale as early as the second half of 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal's sources.
Dell supposedly started working on the new device about a year ago as a way to compete against Apple's iPod business. The Journal also cited an unnamed source who said that Dell has considered selling the new Internet device through a cell phone carrier. Dell and other computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard already sell their Netbooks through cell phone operators.
Dell has long been rumored to be making a smartphone. And the company has also been rumored to be testing the Android software for its smartphone and possible for its Netbooks. With these developments in the works, it probably wouldn't take much to also develop a portable Internet device using the same operating system without the phone. That's what Apple did with the iPod Touch.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
The first G1 phone from Google blew away all effort from MS from when they first started, now that genious.
Let's face it...generally speaking the "phone" part of "smartphone" generally sucks. So, dump it. Sell cellular data access on that device. I'd hit that.
Who knows, this might be a hit and will start innovations on Android-based products. This will make consumers (as well as Good, of course.)
Innovations and competitions, the American way?!?!
Dell has learned the hard way that in today's market to be a cost cutter means margins so small the company struggles to make a profit. The companies that tend to innovate and experiment with new platforms like Apple with its iPhone/iPod lines tends to do well because their business model relies on the high margins and higher pricing of emerging markets.
To come along after prices start to fall with a me-too product and without the App Store juggernaut in your favor (and in fact working against you) makes it look like an uphill battle for Dell. There are plenty of great products competing against the iPhone/iPod Touch these days but none seem to make much headway against the firmly established Apple products. With a lack of any history as an innovator with devices Dell is most likely to fail with this one.
More difficult to predict will be if Android can move Windows out of even the smallest PC desktop market share. You can't stay number 1 forever.
Adding another player to the mix is not going to help anyone. I have a iPod Touch and except for the newness of the technology. I really can't say it grows on me. After a few weeks of playing with it, the thing becomes too small and too constrictive to be really useful. I found myself asking why am I surfing the internet on this little thing when I could be using a perfectly good laptop?
- by adam_hartung June 30, 2009 10:10 PM PDT
- Dell's new product is short on what the market looks for, and long on trying to leverage Dell's distribution. Why would this product be desirable, given the capabilities and pricing of an iPhone, Pre or netbook? Dell must change its operating model to regain profits, and that won't happen by trying to push uninteresting new products on customers. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com
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