Monday, March 5, 2007
Dell Stepping into PDA Phone Segment of Market?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "NEWS" @ 07:00 PM
"Dell plans to venture into the handset industry and will initially target the PDA phone segment that will position the company to compete with rivals such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Palm and RIM (Research in Motion), according to sources at Taiwan handset makers. Dell's recent hiring of Motorola's former head of mobile device unit Ron Garriques to run its consumer unit further strengthened the credibility of market rumors, the sources noted. As a leading PC vendor, it is also natural for Dell to choose PDA phones for its attempt to move into the handset industry since the PDA phone is easy to link with PC functionally, the sources added."
No one can quite seem to nail down what Dell is doing in this market, so the guessing continues until they tip their hand and we all see what cards they're holding. Given the razor-thin margins that Dell usually operates on, and the way they like to control the game from end to end, I have a hard time seeing them doing what HP is doing for instance by building a device, partnering with a carrier, and selling it in the retail channel. By the same token though, given Dell's background in IT infrastructure, I can't see them selling unlocked GSM phones and letting users sort it all out themselves. What do you think Dell is up to?
No one can quite seem to nail down what Dell is doing in this market, so the guessing continues until they tip their hand and we all see what cards they're holding. Given the razor-thin margins that Dell usually operates on, and the way they like to control the game from end to end, I have a hard time seeing them doing what HP is doing for instance by building a device, partnering with a carrier, and selling it in the retail channel. By the same token though, given Dell's background in IT infrastructure, I can't see them selling unlocked GSM phones and letting users sort it all out themselves. What do you think Dell is up to?
