Windows Phone Thoughts: Dell Gives Cell Phones the Flick

"Dell says it has no plans to get into the cellular phone business. But it's still big on wireless. The Round Rock, Texas, company, which on Thursday reported its first-quarter earnings, described reports that it would begin selling cellular phone subscriptions in 2006 as inaccurate on Thursday afternoon. "We have no intentions or plans to go into the cell phone business," Kevin Rollins, Dell Inc.'s CEO, said in on a conference call with reporters following its earnings report. But Dell, which has entered numerous markets adjacent to its core PC business over the past several years, including printers and network switches, has embraced wireless, offering both Wi-Fi and WWAN (wireless wide-area network) services for its notebooks. The company, which offers several varieties of Wi-Fi modules in its business notebooks and also built into its Axim handheld, has also been offering wide area wireless for about the last two years."

It appears as though those rumours about a Dell Windows Mobile-powered cellular handheld may be pushed back another year or two. According to Kevin Rollins, CEO of Dell, they have no intentions to enter the cell phone business anytime soon. While eWEEK still believe that there is a possibility that Dell may introduce a Pocket PC Phone Edition in their Axim line, a Dell spokeswoman was adamant on shutting that point down by reiterating the fact that "(they) have no immediate plans to announce such a project." One word says it all: Bummer!