Rumors of Google and Dell iPhone Rival

An anonymous reader writes "Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell. Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month's 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, although Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future."

Competition is GOOD

[StCredZero]

Competition is Good. We're just at the beginning. (And just catching up to the Japanese!)

Re:Competition is GOOD

[Anonymous Coward]

Correction: We're catching up to where the Japanese were three years ago...

Competition at last?

[pwnies]

Despite this most likely happening right after duke nukem forever comes out, if it does happen, it'll be a great thing to have. Right now Apple needs a rival. If they sit at the top alone with the iPhone, it won't have any incentive to get better. Google is just the company to give them this competition, and Dell's equally enormous resources will surely fuel the hardware side of the development.

Dell will lose even more money

[mveloso]

Remember the Dell DJ?

Dell is good at selling commodity products to businesses and value consumers. When they try and move up the food chain, they don't do so well, the Alienware acquisition notwithstanding.

Because the DJ was such a success...

[Overzeetop]

...and the Axim is the top currently selling pda from Dell.

Half baked and abandoned hardware - yeah, that's what I really want in a device.

Sorry, but there has got to be a better hardware vendor to choose than Dell for such a venture. Dell consumer is about high turnover and commodity parts that can be changed with the wind when prices fluctuate - not what I want in a phone builder. Doesn't Nokia or Moto want a piece of this kind of action?

dell isn't a technology company

[feldsteins]

I think Google should partner with a technology company to provide the hardware instead of Dell. Dell has no R&D to speak of. They take off-the-shelf parts, brand them and sell a warranty. This partnership is on a fast train to also-ran city.

Re:but does it run linux?

[somersault]

Have you heard of these iPod thingies? You know, the ones that cost more than equivalently specced devices, but just look a bit nicer? The ones that millions of people seem to think are worth it? I certainly don't think they're worth the money, but a lot of people do. Same goes for nice looking cars, etc.

whatcouldpossiblygowrong? not much.

[algae]

Seriously people, this tag is getting massively overused. Dell making a cell phone is not the same thing as, say, implanting neural tissue from a pig into paralyzed children or building robots with machine guns. The worst thing that could go wrong here is that Dell might make a shitty phone and lose money. BFD.

Anyone else who's sick of whatcouldpossiblygowrong abuse, please go ahead and put in a !whatcouldpossiblygowrong into the tags box.

Great!

[Bootarn]

Google's Android is a great framework, but it has yet to gain substance by being embedded in real hardware. If Google and Dell put their heads together, we might have a complete product. It will probably never outgrow the iPhone in popularity, but I think it will become a success.
Also, because Android is an open framework, we should expect a great number of third-party applications, something that the iPhone currently lacks.

Re:but does it run linux?

[lymond01]

From the grandparent comment: It's not a Mac vs Linux thing -- as the poster above states, there are very successful Windows Mobile phones that are doing a much better job at business applications than iPhone. Blackberry and Palm are sort of run-of-the-mill these days and don't offer much more than a normal Internet-ready phone. Exchange integration is the big thing -- everyone wants their calendar anywhere, even if they don't have Internet access.

One thing I'd really like on the iPhone is a grdesktop client and ssh client. Exchange integration will make the iPhone widely accepted by businesses running Exchange, but IT guys need their tools too.

Re:but does it run linux?

[Albanach]

I think the iPod's success is more to do with the user interface than the form factor.

It doesn't look that different to other mp3 players, but the incredibly simple and intuitive interface made it accessible to millions of folk who would not have put up with the UIs of other portable media devices.

Re:...and the Zune is an iPod killer.

[Khuffie]

does everything the iphone does plus more

No wifi and lack of sufficient internal storage, yet you can claim that? It's a competitor, but it doesn't do everything the iPhone does.

Android can be multi-vendor

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Look at how MS gets sack time with multiple big name vendors using Windows CE. There are many companies out there with Windows CE devices, so why not multiple Android-based systems too?

Most of the Windows phones look so similar that they are primarily Windows phones with MS-brand images being larger than the manufacturers logos etc(Ooh look! A Windows phone, I wonder who makes it). The MS/Windows brand is the strongest brand on these devices.

The first one or two Android phones will get a lot of reflected Googleshine, just like the launch of the first few MS phones.

sorry, can't do

[Tom]

When I look around on the market, there simply aren't many companies that could rival Apple when it comes to designing with the user in mind, i.e. useful, easy to use, sleak and nice, with just about the right feature set (80%, you never please everyone entirely).

Nokia, Siemens, Motorolla - they all suck in the useability department. Most of them suck hard and long.
Dell, HP, Palm - useability ok, but the feature set is never quite right
Google - interface ok, useaful, but thrives too much on hiding things (how many of your non-geek friends now even a fraction of the cool things you can do in the Google search input field?)

The only company that comes to mind as comparing to Apple in the design department is Nintendo - and I'd be more than surprised if they came out with a mobile phone ("DS+Talk" ? :-) )

Re:Thing's that you're l'ble to read in the bible.

[cornellfOo]

I agree w/ above. Google bringing out a Goo-phone wouldn't make any sense, business-wise. Creating one would directly conflict with the goals of it's Android platform. Google stands to gain much more by staying on their hardware-independent path and profiting from the software.

Come to think of it, Dell manufacturing/re-branding a low-end smartphone would seem to fit with their existing strategy. Much like their PC segment, they could sell the device cheaply and make money selling high margin accessories.

Re:Competition at last?

[EvilNTUser]

"Right now Apple needs a rival. If they sit at the top alone with the iPhone, it won't have any incentive to get better."

What?

Nokia? Sony Ericsson? Samsung?

I know this site is supposed to be U.S. centric, but have we now regressed to ignoring companies that aren't American? Hell, even the title says that Google and Dell are releasing an iPhone rival instead of a smartphone. Please stop this already. We don't have to kleenex every single product Apple decides to market.

Re:Dell will lose even more money

[jaseuk]

Dell's PDAs were as good as any other Windows CE / PocketPC PDA. The whole market was full of similar devices with almost identical features, the reason that dell pulled out of this market was competition from Windows Smartphone, Dell couldn't really compete with subsidised handsets from the cell-phone operators.