Dell Venue

South Korean carrier KT announced the launch of the Dell Venue, a keyboardless version of the WP7 Dell Venue Pro, previously leaking as the Dell Thunder. The Android 2.2 device sports a 4.1″ display, and launches in the land of Samsung and LG this month for about $600. KT is confirming the slightly curved display that the Dell Thunder leak revealed.

Dell Venue Pro

The rest of the leaked specs back in August were 1GHz Snapdragon, and an 8MP camera with LED flash. One of the found prototypes then was with AWS frequencies, which means T-Mobile might be getting it, along with the originally expected AT&T. The reviewers also thought that it might appear on Verizon or Sprint, since they found on one of the devices software, called Qualcomm CDMA Programming. However, since the name of one company branch is Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, and Snapdragon is their chipset, it probably is just the generic utility software for testing GSM and CDMA basebands in Snapdragon-based devices, so we wouldn’t place our hopes too high about this one.

In any case, we can probably expect to see the Dell Venue announced in the US at some point, maybe right after the company fixes the nagging issues with its WP7-running brethren, the Dell Venue Pro, the delivery of which has been pushed back to January now for most handsets.

Early adopters, who preordered the Dell Venue Pro, and now have to wait, will be receiving a free Plantronics Explorer 240 Bluetooth headset as a sign of Dell’s remorse in a few weeks. Not much of a consolation, but making smartphones is a tough business, and Dell obviously bit a tad more than it can chew.

source: KT (translated) & Engadget

In 2007, Dell hired Ron Garriques after he led Motorola’s mobile phone division. Last year, Mr. Garriques was put in charge of Dell’s newly devised communications solution group and the executive was the man controlling Dell’s plans for smartphones and tablets. After both the Dell Streak and the Dell Aero flopped this year, it has been decided that Mr. Garriques will be leaving the company in 2011.

Of course, what executive goes away empty-handed? Garriques will be floating down on a Golden Parachute that gives him a severance check of $1.44 million and a payment of $3.15 million under his consultancy agreement. Imagine if he had been successful. The mobile communications group that Garriques led is now being rolled back into the main company.
source: AndroidandMe

Bigger than a smartphone and smaller than a netbook, Dell is poised to launch a new Android-powered tablet device and should be announced at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. The Dell Android tablet is expected to have a 5-inch touchscreen with 800 x 480 resolution, 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity, and more.

Known as the Streak, Dell’s tablet is rumored to launch in the UK early in 2010 and there are no details yet regarding a U.S. launch. Other Android tablets that the Dell will be competing with are the Archos Internet Tablet and the newly-announced JooJoo (formerly CrunchPad).

source: Pocket-lint

Thanks to a Vietnamese mobile site, images of Dell’s new Android-powered “Streak” have appeared and the Android field just got a little more crowded. The Streak runs Android 2.0 and offers up 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, 5-megapixel camera, a 5″ WVGA multitouch capacitive display for easy touching, dual-LED flash, Bluetooth, microSD and 1300 mAh battery. We will let you know about the when and where once we know more.

source: BGR

You pretty much know that someone is under pain of death when they have to take an out-of-focus picture on the sly so the rumor mill gods can be satisfied, and what we have here looks like Dell’s Mini 3i Android phone with a customized interface for China Mobile. Some of the purported specs include quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, 3.5-inch 640 x 360 touch display, 3-megapixel camera with flash, video support @ 30 fps, Bluetooth, A-GPS, and microSD memory expansion. Hopefully some daring soul who has one of these in their hands will be able to post clear photos and/or video that is not reminiscent of blurry, grainy photos of UFOs or Bigfoot.

Source: engadget mobile via BGR

The rumor mill has been grinding away with more Android news, and the latest is the alleged announcement to come sometime this week that the Texas computer company Dell will release their Android-based handset in China. Dell’s Android phone will have a full touchscreen and should lack a physical keyboard. BGR claims their source has confirmed a device very similar to their rendering (pictured) and it is unknown what kind of special “tweaks” that Dell may bring to the party. We here at Android Arena will certainly report any news as it becomes available – hopefully coverage of the launch and a rundown of specifications. Good luck, Dell!

Source: BGR

Dell is up to something Android-related, but it’s not a phone. According to the WSJ online, Dell engineers are developing a pocket-sized device that is Web-centric, runs on the Android platform, and is slightly larger than the iPod Touch. Unconfirmed sources speculate that the device might begin selling as soon as later this year, which if true wouldn’t be such a bad idea to get a competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch in the hands of Christmas shoppers.

Dell has already tried to compete with Apple’s iPod with developing their own music device, but that project was shelved. This new device is still very much vaporware and could see the same fate, but two reasons come to mind that may help this project reach fruition: the iPod Touch market is almost as big as the iPhone market, and Dell can have a shot at price competitiveness by using the Android OS. How does a pocket-sized, Internet-connecting, Android-powered Dell device sound to you?

Source: WSJ

It has long been thought that PC maker Dell would start producing a line of smartphones. According to stock market analyst Shaw Wu, who practices his craft at Kaufman Brothers, it is back to the drawing board for Dell after prototypes of the company’s smartphones were rejected by the cellular carriers. According to a story on Barron’s web site, Dell had produced prototypes of handsets running Windows Mobile and others running the Android OS. The carriers were not impressed, according to Wu, and they felt that there was not enough “differentiation” between Dell’s mock-ups and smartphones scheduled to be released by manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Nokia and Motorola among others. Wu’s sources tell him that the PC maker is not giving up and that the company is aware of the numbers that show that the smartphone niche of the cellphone business is expected to grow in the next two years despite the weak world-wide economy. With the increasing data gathering and crunching these phones can do, this sector of the industry is also taking business away from Dell’s computer sales. Now that other PC makers like Acer are pushing a strong line of smartphones, Wu says that Dell is working on designing a phone with enough differences to catch the attention of the cellular networkers. Another option for the company would be an acquisition of a cellphone manufacturer.  Considering how low stock market prices are, there could be plenty of opportunities for Dell to buy their way into the industry.

source