Dell to launch mobile in China?
This is the strangest news I’ve read today. TechCrunch is reporting that Dell is about to launch a mobile phone in China. Not only that, but the OS is rumored to be the open-source OS from Google, yes you guessed it: Android.
I find this strange for a number of reasons…
First, why is Dell even contemplating the notion of venturing into the Mobile space? There are already a number of formidable players fighting for market share whether it’s the iPhone, HTC (Android and Windows versions), Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Palm PRE… all the way through to the localised DoCoMo phones in Japan. Is this Dell’s late response to the iPhone?
Secondly, why China? Of course, it’s a huge market… but wouldn’t it be reverse engineered within minutes and sold for a quarter of the price? Anyone know anything about this? China recently allowed the launch of iPhones but has for some reason restricted them from having WiFi capability. I wonder if Dell’s phone will be?
Thirdly… Android? Dell’s been heavily intertwined with Microsoft Windows OS’s for a long time through it’s consumer and B2B PC business… will this move cause any dent in this?
Very strange news, and we’ll be watching carefully to see how things progress. Watch this space…
Won’t be surprise that Dell launch a mobile phone. It has been in the rumour mill for quite some time already. Dell used to (not sure if they still have it) a range of PDA – i owned one quite some time back. However, they were never been able to compete in the PDA market with so many players moving in that direction and mobile phone maker moving into mobile PDA phone as well.
China will probably be interesting. I doubt that they will be successful in China as Dell do not have the cult status as the iphone. It is probably another “me too” mentality that China has a huge mobile customer based and wanting to have a share of that pie – forgetting that clones maker are much stronger – such as Meizu.
[...] Marketing No Commented I wrote last week, about some strange rumors regarding Dell releasing an Android powered phone in the Chinese market. Well as it turn’s out these rumors were true and The Register has some images to prove [...]