10:00 PM
The Mobile
By Kirk Ladendorf
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Dell Inc. joined a stampede of companies offering Android-based smart phones to U.S. customers Wednesday when it announced an exclusive supply deal with AT&T Inc.
The first phone from Dell's Mini 3 lineup will be introduced in the first half of this year.
The company didn't disclose other details or the price of the Mini, its first entry in the smart phone market.
The U.S. phone is expected to be similar to Dell smart phones that began shipping late last year in China and Brazil.
Dell's partner in China is China Mobile, the world's largest cellular carrier. Dell says it has other deals in the works with cell phone carriers in Europe, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.
With AT&T, Dell now has a tie to the nation's second-largest cellular provider.
AT&T noted that Dell will join Motorola and Taiwan's HTC as makers of Android-based phones it will offer this year.
A group of companies are rushing to deliver Android-based smart phones this year, including Google Inc., which developed the software. Google introduced its own phone, the Nexus One, on Tuesday. That phone will initially work only on T-Mobile's network in this country.
"This is Dell's big move into the cell phone space," said analyst Rob Enderle with the Enderle Group. "They are making this move by remolding themselves as an alternative to Apple."
AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple's iPhone.
Enderle says AT&T might use its new ties to Dell and other Android phone makers as a bargaining chip as it attempts to renegotiate its deal with Apple.
"AT&T wants to reduce their dependency on Apple. This arrangement (with Dell and other Android suppliers) showcases once again how unhappy they are with Apple."
As it adds smart phones to its lineup, AT&T also is beefing up its network to handle the increased traffic, chief technology officer John Donovan said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
He said wireless data traffic grew nearly 5,000 percent in the past three years because of the iPhone, netbooks and increasingly popular e-book readers.
Dell is hinting that the smart phone is just the first part of a mobile products strategy.
"Smart phones are an extension of Dell's strategy to develop intelligent and more mobile products that meet the needs of operators and customers," said Ron Garriques, president of Dell's newly created communications solutions line.
"The Mini 3 is a result of listening to customers and creating products that allow people to do the things they want, whenever and wherever they want to do them."
Android phones are expected to deliver many of the same touch-screen capabilities that have made the iPhone a big hit the past two years.
Analysts say there are a few good reasons why phone makers are lining up to use Android. The software is free. It's good. And it has thousands of customized software applets for customers to choose from.
Microsoft Corp. also makes mobile software for smart phones, but it charges manufacturers for the software.
"Cell phone makers pay zero dollars for Android," said Will Strauss with Forward Concepts in Tempe, Ariz. "The choice is clear."
Even though Dell is a big name in the personal computer industry, it is starting from scratch in the cell phone business, Strauss said.
"They have zero market share in the U.S. at the moment," he said. "They are going to be fighting for mindshare."
Though Dell hasn't spelled out what other mobile products are in the works, one executive dropped a hint Wednesday.
Michael Tatelman, a vice president in Dell's consumer business, told Reuters that Dell's Alienware subsidiary probably will introduce an "ultramobile gaming platform" soon.
Dell is expected to show off a variety of consumer-related products today at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show.
kladendorf@statesman.com; 445-3622
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