“An equity research note discussing a possible Dell bid for cell phone market share is the latest sign of a company shifting its strategy to better compete against Apple and others,” Zach Spear reports for AppleInsider.
“Kaufman Brothers’ Shaw Wu suggested an announcement could come as soon as 3GSM or the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in mid-February,” Spear reports. “He wrote, ‘From our supply chain checks, Dell has been studying the cell phone market and talking with component suppliers and manufacturers for nearly two years now.'”
“Wu cited his sources as saying a launch is now ‘closer to reality than before’ and that he sees the PC maker entering the cell phone market as ‘inevitable.’ The analyst also noted that Dell’s president of consumer business Ron Garriques joined the company in early 2007 after gaining “considerable cell phone expertise” with Motorola,” Spear reports.
“Wu believes Dell should consider acquiring a software maker and develop its own operating system to better stand out from a large segment of the market all running either Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Android. Palm, of course, recently announced its new webOS,” Spear reports. “This would be a break from the past when Dell’s Axim was a line of Windows Mobile-powered Pocket PC personal data assistants, discontinued in April 2007. Another Dell smaller form factor hardware device, the Dell DJ music player, was shelved in 2006.”
Full article here.
If this rumor is true, perhaps Michael Dell has his sights set on Palm? Or Moto? If so (Palm, Moto or some other mess), Mikey’s grasp on reality is even more tenuous than we suspected – and that’s really saying something.
@ james73
The question is rather… will it run? Will it run at all?
Good point here: “Wu believes Dell should consider acquiring a software maker and develop its own operating system…”
I think they should acquire Microsoft, after all they sorta make operating systems….sorta.
An iPhone nano competitor called the Itty Ditty.
How about the itty bitty Ditty?
Didn’t we hear of another shift in Dell strategy just a few weeks ago?
Pretty soon, the only “shift” strategy Mikey Dell will be concerned with, will involve whether he says “do you want fries with that?” at 11am or 9pm.
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