“Dell today formally entered the smartphone race by launching the Mini 3,” Electronista reports.
“The full-touchscreen phone depends on a customized version of Android and will have different features based on the region. While most details aren’t available, the China Mobile version will be limited to EDGE data but use the government-supported OPhone interface and app store. Other countries should get localized 3G and should also have Wi-Fi as well,” Electronista reports. “Most other specifications haven’t been published, but a 3-megapixel camera and a 640×360 display resolution are already well-known.”
Electronista reports, “The Mini 3’s first shipments are to China Mobile later this month and to Brazil’s Claro by the end of the year, but Dell has already confirmed US deals for AT&T and Verizon for early next year as well as Vodafone agreements for Australia, Europe and New Zealand, Maxis in Malaysia and both M1 as well as StarHub in Singapore.”
More details and images in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yet another Android device with yet another screen size and yet another feature set for developers to deal with. From Dell. Yawn.
@ @ PCA
I think you misunderstand me – if the patentable technology is what makes the product great, then of course the patentholder is going to be the only one able to provide the experience and will be able to charge the premium.
If the IDEA is a great one, but requires nothing else unique to the idea-haver, then the idea-haver shan’t be able to charge a premium for it, because others will come to market with a product/experience just as great for less money. If you conceive the peanut butter and banana sandwich, you can’t get away with charging $10 for it because any jerk can come along and make one for 75 cents, steal the market from underneath you, and nobody (except you) is gonna bemoan how that jerk didn’t innovate.
The iPhone’s patents are keeping it on top for now, but the “killers” will eventually find a recipe that provides a similar-enough experience for less money. Apple’s gotta keep pedaling to stay in front.
Hmmm, this DELL phone looks … familiar ….
@PC
You can be assured Apple will stay in front. It’s the wannabes that are peddling furiously just to stay three steps behind the leader.
Your thoughts on ideas and technology somehow don’t cover widespread abuse by an illegal and predatory monopoly, using the technologies and ideas of others. Presume you admire that.
I think Google’s Android isn’t killing iPhone, it’s killing Microsoft’s Windows Mobile or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week.
Headline should read,
“Another Windows Mobile Killer (or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week)”.
@ m159 –
I don’t think illegal monopolies are relevant to the discussion. I was responding to a comment suggesting that iPhone imitators are something to be frowned upon, when in fact this is exactly how the free market + patent system are intended to work. Innovation and development of new, patentable technologies are ENCOURAGED by this system. If Apple wants to continue to be the leader, they must continue to bring better value or new technologies to market.
Steve Jobs was absolutely right when he declared the iPhone was five-years ahead of the competition.
I’ve never even seen the Droid but from what I’ve read about it, it sounds like a worthy contender to the iPhone, however it will be years before its value is comparable to the iPhone experience.
In its first attempt to make a phone, Apple redefined what a smart phone is and has set the bar awfully high, however the telephone industry made so damn easy.
Good luck in reaching the bar, mikey. Need a booster chair?
Dude, you got a Dell!
iPhone rip-offs are something to be frowned upon. There’s nothing redeeming about a derivative product from a creatively bankrupt company. That isn’t a celebration of the free market and patent system, it’s a celebration of parasitically riding on somebody else’s coattails, trying to cash in on their hard work because you can’t be bothered to do your own.
Your idea that shamelessly copying Apple is a good thing since it forces them to drive innovation forward is laughable, because when companies start playing follow-the-leader what it results in is a stagnant wasteland of innovation littered with failed me-too products where only one company, the leader, is making any headway.
If the other smartphone manufacturers weren’t allowed to shamelessly rip-off the iPhone, or shamelessly rip-off eachother for that matter, then suddenly Apple wouldn’t be the lone source of innovation and creativity in the market as Dell, Palm, Nokia etc. were forced to rub their braincells together and come up with some vaguely original ideas.
The reason the iPhone is dominating is not because it copied all the other smartphones out there, the reason is because it didn’t. And in that vein, the real iPhone killer will not be some copycat like the Mini 3, or Droid, or Pre. The real iPhone killer will be something quite unlike the iPhone, and quite unlike anything else on the market, too.
That is how it works. The sooner the leeches attached to Apple realize this the better, as it will be at that moment, at long last, we will finally have some viable competition.
Eh, just rename it the NoPhone.
Someone’s had too many vodkas- Russia in your back yard? Politics up the butt from which you speak?….
Back on topic, I too am amazed that competition has been reduced to capitalizing on another’s innovation for the sole prospect of making company. Microsoft and Dell in particular thrive on this- cheap imitations that sheeplike dim bulb mediocrities embrace. Got black velvet Elvises on your walls, too? Shop much at the Christmas Tree Shop and Dollar Stores? I’m semi-retired and poor, but I’ll spend my money wisely.
[Why doesn’t the headline say “iPhone Killer”?]
According to AppleMatters resident forum bully ‘Beeblebrox’. Only Apple-koolaid drinking, rabid, panties in a twist, kneel-at-the-altar-of-Steve-Jobs-crotch, certified blind MacZealots every use the term “iPhone Killer”.
Does the name Mini 3 suggest that two earlier models had failed?
I’m so done with all this stuff. Bring on the ‘Next Big Thing’, so everyone can copy that.
@KillBill – Thanks for the article – I hadn’t heard about those Dell computers. Kudos to them for putting in BluRay. I could see this product affecting Mac Mini sales – 1) given the relatively low price, 2) inclusion of Blu-Ray, 3) small form factor, and 4) choice of OS’s – Windows for the mainstream and Linux for geeks. Truthfully I could see purchasing a low end Linux unit to try out in the family room as a “cheap” blu ray device / internet access device.
As for using it on a day to day basis as my main computer, I’m Apple all the way because of OS X.
Regards.
Wanna know who will make the ‘iPhone Killer’?
Hint: It’ll be the same company that killed the iPod mini.
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[BTW, I got permission to use the term iPhone Killer from ‘Beeb’.]
Can the HP phone be far behind?
Smart business move on Dell’s part.
Launch in china, the biggest technology market in the world potential 940 billion dollar market over there.
Get 1% of that and your laughing.
Only problem with china though is as soon as its released over there the phones will be everywhere, not made by Dell but electronic forger companies – so Dell wont get 1 dollar of the cash.
You guys should not be so unruly on this one. I for one am a bit worried that Android is making great steps into the smartphone market. Google seems to be playing the right cards, basically copying the iPhone, yet adding unique features to the device. As it catches on, doesn’t anyone else start to see a similar problem for Apple that it faced when battling Microsoft? A closed system by Apple with combined workings with its Hardware versus an open system by (Google/Microsoft) with others free to do whatever they like with the hardware. A win/win situation for Google, as it was with Microsoft.
If you’re a Google fan, this may not be your happy day either. Microsoft profited nicely from this arrangement, but made very little headway in innovation. They essentially waited for the competition to do something, then either bought them out or drove them out of existence by bundling it in their own software.
To me, this is really beginning to seem as though many companies, including Dell, Motorola, HTC have given up! They have just decided to hand everything over to Google. But they are prone to make the same errors that Compaq, Gateway and Dell made with Microsoft —- Compatibility. Already, you are seeing that Dell has to use a “special” version of Android. I smell incompatibility issues and patches up the wazoo.
For the record, I’m staying with Apple on this one. They created the genre; they lead the genre and are not guessing about what will be successful. They have a track record and they’ve finally gotten rid of Benedict Arnold in the Board Room.
/rick.
Welcome to the party Dell. You’re late, the punch bowl is empty and all the pretty girls went home.