Dell handset rumors continue to swirl

Don't hide it. We all share the same moment of reflection accompanying any $500+ smartphone purchase: "Man, I could really use a cheap, new Axim right about now." Say it loud boy, 'cause you might be in luck if DigiTimes' sources are to be believed. According to the Taiwanese rumor rag, Dell is set to "resume its handheld device business" with a focus on Windows Mobile, not Android as previously rumored (though we'd be nuts to rule that out). Sources claim that Foxconn (not Quanta) is preparing to accept handset orders from Dell who is busy organizing its handheld device team under Ron Garriques, the executive VP Michael Dell hired away from Motorola's cellphone division in early 2007. Of course, the industry stood shaking in its Palm OS boots the first time Dell entered the handheld market in 2002 -- a "Palm killer" as Dell's inexpensive and bulky Pocket PCs were then hailed. Now, with Palm all but dead, Dell would enter an entirely different marketplace dominated by premium handsets from the likes of RIM, HTC and that upstart from Cupertino. Following ASUS' resurgent WinMo offerings unveiled at CeBIT and Acer's recent acquisition of E-Ten, we're pretty sure Michael Dell isn't just looking on from Round Rock, fiddling.

[kyle allen @ Mar 19th 2008 4:11AM]

foxconn? i thought they just made plastic parts for mobos, than again i used to think you turned into a robot if you touched an electric fence...

[r19578 @ Mar 19th 2008 11:30AM]

Nope, Foxconn is a Fortune 500 company and one of the major electronic OEM factories, probably the Nokia or Motorola even iPod in your pocket is made by Foxconn.

[JohnTitor @ Mar 19th 2008 3:28PM]

Foxconn also makes motherboards for other companies and including Xbox and PS3

anyway I'd love to see Dell come back to the PDA market, their last Axims are more powerful and cheaper than most PDA phones in the market now

[kyle allen @ Mar 19th 2008 5:02PM]

THERE IS NO IPOD IN MY POCKET AND THERE NEVER WILL BE!!!! i might as well keep a spontaneously combusting pile of worthlessness in my pocket!

[AutoTom @ Mar 19th 2008 4:16AM]

do dell not realise they are dispised by... everyone?

[kyle allen @ Mar 19th 2008 4:28AM]

no, kuz their not

[soviet_vexxer @ Mar 19th 2008 4:44AM]

lol @ kyle allen

still in denial over his recent purchase.

[Bob @ Mar 19th 2008 8:34AM]

do everyone dispise dell... really?

[ChrisM @ Mar 19th 2008 9:27AM]

I surely don't despise Dell, I have 5 laptops, 2 desktops and about 14 servers that are all Dell's and frankly wouldn't suggest any other company to anyone for any purpose. What alternatives are we talking about here?

[Jeff P. @ Mar 19th 2008 9:58AM]

Don't confuse your narrow mindedness and stupidity with the rest of the population. Dell is a respected brand and they make some good products. I've got a 24" LCD and an XPS notebook that is "In Production".

[Timmy @ Mar 19th 2008 5:20PM]

Count me as another satisfied Dell user. I do IT for small biz and have been hooked on Dells since the first Pentium 90 Mhz machine I got about 10 years ago.

I don't piece build white boxes. Been there, done that. HP is too complex to figure out what you want to order for a small biz account. IBM the same. I go online, build my order, get it a few days later. It works.

Are they perfect? Nope. Would I switch? Probably not.

[Bob @ Mar 25th 2008 8:53AM]

To be serious for a minute (this isn't normal for me), I used to work at a church with 85 employees and took care of about 60 desktops and 4 laptops as well as 4 servers. I'd say 90% of that stuff was Dell, and I never really had any issues with it. Also, I do recommend Dell to friends/family, but I stress heavily they do not buy the cheap models (the $300-$500 or so models). Those are the ones I have had issues with in the past hardware-wise, other than that, I do like their laptops (though prefer Toshiba laptops) and I'm pretty happy with their servers as well.


I'm actually kinda mad at (or "unhappy with" if you will) my Macbook Pro right now (my first Mac, got it in December '07)... Ever since I upgraded to Leopard, I've had nothing but issues... =( Anyone else have this experience?

[Brian @ Mar 19th 2008 4:21AM]

Let's hope the quality is better than their desktop machines which, like their share price, seems to be on a downward turn.

[soviet_vexxer @ Mar 19th 2008 4:26AM]

just another dell product to break down after the initial use.

[[e-mail] @ Mar 19th 2008 4:27AM]

I hope it's as sexy and stylish as the Dell DJ.






(yes. sarcasm)

[tekdroid @ Mar 19th 2008 5:58AM]

Dell DJ. Traditional Dell styling at its best!

[waybacmac @ Mar 19th 2008 4:39AM]

So Dell is joining the other industry lemmings to put out a what? A "smart" phone? A PDA? Who knows? Dell certainly doesn't. Industry sophomorics: "Gee, all the other guys have one. I want one too!". Trouble is, the software and hardware that are really needed don't exist yet. The stuff that comes out now, comes out with a lot of compromises just so that it can come out now. Whatever Dell comes up with, you can bet you'll find it at Overstock.com and WOOT! within a year. There's method in the madness of that "upstart from Cupertino."

[Brad @ Mar 19th 2008 4:17PM]

Dell did it before. The Axim x51 is still one of the sharpest, most feature-rich PDAs ever made. The thing had a 640x480 screen, SDIO and CF slots, and WiFi in 2003. I still have mine today, and it streams Last.fm as my bedside clock radio, while syncing with my work servers to keep schedule and email at my fingertips.

But then again, I can't expect someone with "mac" in their name to be able to see value in anything not sold as a fashion accessory.

[Stevie Wonder @ Mar 19th 2008 5:24AM]

"we'd would"?

C'mon! I mean, seriously! That really slipped by your editing skillz?

[packetsniffer @ Mar 19th 2008 9:47AM]

I don't know if you're joking or not, but spell check wouldn't catch that. Grammar check probably wouldn't either. There are far more egregious grammatical errors in other articles to point out ;-)

[Bob @ Mar 30th 2008 10:16PM]

"skillz"

Come on! Did that really slip by your editing skills?

=)

[Rich @ Mar 19th 2008 6:40AM]

Hiring staff from Motorola? That's a plan that couldn't possibly backfire...

[Fruition @ Mar 19th 2008 6:40AM]

I've had an Axim X50v since December 2004 and the thing has worked beautifully. I use it for music and movies, stored on a combination of a 1gb SD card and a 6gb CF card. The battery life is shorter than it used to be, but the device itself is as rock solid as the day I bought it.

Say what you will about the Dell DJ, but the Axim was a sexy looking device before they canned it.

If Dell re-enters the handheld market, I'd definitely look to buy from them again.

[ventivent @ Mar 19th 2008 8:59AM]

Six or seven years ago, Pocket PC PDAs were much more expensive than Palm-based PDAs. When Dell introduced the (cheaply priced) Axim X5, it brought a whole new user base to what is now Windows Mobile. I still have fond memories of my X5 brick; it was the device that switched me over from Palm OS. I've been through seven or eight Windows Mobile devices now and haven't looked back.

[packetsniffer @ Mar 19th 2008 9:20AM]

@ventivent
Funny. I enjoyed my Axim for a good 6 months, but it ultimately drove me back to Palm OS :-)

[y3k.nik @ Mar 19th 2008 6:52AM]

For all the Engadget apple bias complainers:

LOOK... ITS A WINDOWS POST!!! OMG OMG OMG.. ENGADGET IS BIASED TOWARDS WINDOWS.. I USED TO READ IT ALL THE TIME, BUT THE OBVIOUS WINDOWS BIAS MADE ME READ SOMETHING ELSE!!!

[Fruition @ Mar 19th 2008 8:06AM]

I would like to point out that this post, despite being about a (rumored) Windows device, was able to make mention of Apple:

"...and that upstart from Cupertino."

[Joe @ Mar 19th 2008 8:44AM]

I'm surprised it wasn't tagged.

[Zak @ Mar 19th 2008 12:07PM]

Fruition - Yes, in the same sentence as HTC and RIM. That is the market that this Dell handset would allegedly be entering, so what is your damn problem? Would you rather Engadget remove all references to Apple completely, even though it should be blindingly obvious that the iPhone would be one of this handset's competitors?

And y3k is completely correct, so of course his post got downranked. All you have to do is look at the comments in the iTunes subscription rumor article to see exactly what he's talking about. There's all kinds of morons in there whining about how only Apple rumors get any attention on Engadget, which of course is pure bullcrap. This article is one of many that proves it.

But since hating Apple is the popular thing to do these days - oh wait, it's been the popular thing to do since 1984 - there's no need to actually use brain power or make sense, right? Just say whatever the hell you want, who cares if it can be disproven! You're an Apple hater, so you must be right!

[Fruition @ Mar 20th 2008 2:18PM]

Calm down, Zak. I was just being funny.

[packetsniffer @ Mar 19th 2008 9:18AM]

"Now, with Palm all but dead,"
Not true at all. The Centros are flying off the shelves; in fact, they're strongly pulling away sales from the Treo line.

It's true that Palm is struggling, but to say they're all but dead is no different than saying Sprint is all but dead. It's overly optimistic for a Palm-hater, and overly pessimistic for anyone else.

[Jeff @ Mar 19th 2008 12:53PM]

word.

while i DO believe that Palm needs to bring their software into freakin' the 21st century, they certainly aren't "all but dead"

the Centro is indeed flying off the shelf, and has been reviewed very well. Palm has some fight in them still, and hopefully we'll start to SEE it soon.

(Note: i don't own a Centro myself, and if Apple made an iPhone for Sprint i'd probably own 3 of them... so i'm no Palm apologist.)

[trumpton @ Mar 19th 2008 10:50AM]

Palm is not "all but dead." In fact, the Centro is a huge seller.

[Frank 'n Stein @ Mar 24th 2008 10:12AM]

I like toast.

[Bob @ Mar 25th 2008 8:59AM]

It seems that we have to reiterate a certain point (even though it's been said many times already), so I'll say it again...

Hey! Guys! Palm is not "all but dead!" The Centro is selling GREAT!

(sarcasm... in case you couldn't tell...)