Windows Phone Thoughts: A Dell smartphone? Pinch Me!

"Dell Inc., aiming to rev up sales as its mainstay personal-computer business struggles in the recession, is preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month, said people familiar with the matter. The Round Rock, Texas, company has had a group of engineers working on the phones for more than a year from an office in the Chicago area, these people said. They produced prototypes built on Google Inc.'s Android operating system and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software, these people said."

The rumours have been swirling for a couple of weeks now, but not with any authority behind them. Now that the Wall Street Journal has weighed in, everyone's picking up the story - I'll leave it to you to decide just how authoritative WSJ is (subscription required to read the full article). In addition, AlleyInsider (via unwiredview.com) has a source that states a launch date of September 9 (09/09/09 - geddit?), and the device(s) will be called the mePhone. Around the web, we've got reactions from Gizmodo and CNet, which basically pick up on the WSJ story while wired.com in an earlier article has additional analysis. Can we hope for an announcement at MWC (Feb 16-19)? Not long now!