Hey, Dell: looking for the absolute quickest way to screw up your first entry into the dog-eat-dog smartphone industry? Well, removing the Market app from your Android load is a solid way to start. Yeah, you heard that right -- according to Brazilian site Zumo, the all-important Android Market was nowhere to be found on the
Mini 3iX it had an opportunity to play with, rendering software discovery and installation about as easy as a WinMo device from three years ago. It seems that Dell's "strategy" here is to have users download apps directly from their sources -- a practice that typically needs to be manually enabled on an Android device as a security override -- and get the rest of their wares from proprietary stores, presumably operated by the carrier, Dell, or both. On the bright side, the 3iX includes the WiFi radio that its Chinese doppelganger lacks and features a generous 3.5-inch display, 3 megapixel camera, 3G support, and a completely button-free face that looks particularly sexy in this low-light shot. Dell's apparently commenting that Brazilians can expect the 3iX in shops in 2010 -- possibly in the first quarter -- which should give 'em just enough time to un-make that deal-breaking Market mistake prior to launch.
posted December 1st 2009 8:54PM
they better add market bak, or almost no one will touch this
Burnt.
Haaha. How can they compete with this in a market increasingly becoming focused on apps?
the fact that this phone is showing only in third world markets clearly shows how inferior this product is...
@MSM Yeah, because Brazil and China totally don't have any world class technology.
@fryhole I didn't say that they didn't have world class technologies, I just said that they are third world countries. Clearly the market exists in China and Brazil, I am talking about the phone its self. You can see that DELL isn't confident enough to sell it in market where more competitive devices are sold, like Japan, USA, Europe and the Middle East...
@MSM exactly! I mean, come on, how many people does China have? Like, 100,000? That's nothing compared to the good 'ole USA!
@MSM
Please tell me you're joking. No human being can be that fucking stupid.
@(Unverified) Crank up the sarcasm detector a notch please..
@DWhizzle Like always there is an ignorant person who speak sh#T with out have a clue of what they speaking, current population 1319175335 against us current population 308,180,913 but may be it don’t matter what is written here since may you don’t know to read or count. : ) nothing like the good old US. You need to travel china have tech you all in the US don’t dream about yet!!!
Puzzling phone. First it's available only in China and Brazil, one without Wi Fi and now without Android market? Why launch such a crippled phone in limited markets with relatively low wealth?
@YpoCaramel
Beta testing?
@YpoCaramel Must have plans to bring it to ATT, possibly why its cripple
It was pretty easy to install WinMo apps 3 years ago, no need to jailbreak, no rejected Apps, no Big Brother with a kill switch
@(Unverified) No unified search interface, no reliable rating or comment system, no guaranteed route to contact the author for support if something went wrong.
Yep, easy as pie.
@jordanjay29
Only the unified search interface is a valid argument for ease of install. The rest is just gravy on a nice app catalog.
I have to agree with the OP, it was super easy to install WinMo apps, the fact that you didn't really know what you were getting, or that some websites would sell free apps is a completely different story.
If it was so easy, how come almost nobody did it? There's a whole wide world of non-geeks out there.
@ljm Really? I consider guaranteed access to a support line more important than gravy. If something goes wrong, I don't care how good that gravy is, I'm not eating the potatoes!
@jordanjay29 But you see, WinMo does EVERYTHING. ANYTHING you could possibly want to do on a phone, there's a .cab for that.
I live in Brazil and, also here Dell sucks, but Apple does too especially with the customer service or lack of it, although Apple opened an online store here but the catalog of products is really poor and it's hard to get our Macs/iPods/iPhones fixed. But still it's better to have a product from a company that doesn't care about my country but has quality products than a company that care about our market but does everything wrong and their products stink.
I think it is because they didn't license any of the Google apps. So Youtube, gmail, calendar is probably also missing.
ewww, this phone is fugly
@Jake Smith
Beat me to it. Even a low light shot can't hide the fact that this thing is about as ugly as a...Dell
@Mr Oos Not my favorite design (by far), but not the worst. Kinda the Toyota Camry of phones... Then again, I think the phone's design is the least of this things problems.
@Jake Smith
looks like someone dropped an iPhone in elephant dung
If they make an adamo like android phone and just leave it with the "Google experience", I would buy one. Dell has some awesome designs, don't know why this one is so cheap and tacky looking.
@designfabulous Good idea. We need someone to shake up the smartphone industry from all the plastics and generic designs.
You can see how dirty it is. Is there any clearer reason to not make shiny crap? Are people so lame that they need to make it shiny for you to buy it?
Soft touch plz.
@DarkElfa pretty sure that if u read the article that it clearly says that Dell wants you to download the apps from the sources, ie there is no app store and you go find the apps on the internet.
I wouldn't lose sleep over what's there and what's not in test builds seen on prototypes.
Isn't the market app mandatory for Android? I read that somewhere.
@devilfriend It's not, and you didn't. Android doesn't require any of the Google-made apps. Alternatives are welcome in non-apple land
@devilfriend
they have specific requirements if you want to brand the phone a "google" device or something like that, maybe thats what you read
@devilfriend
In reality, absolutely nothing is mandatory for Android. If you can tweak it to make it work, you're welcome to sell it. Google can't enforce anything unless you're licensing their logo or their apps.
Maybe it's the Chinese government that doesn't want the Market app?
@Pies Sorry, it's Brazilian. I'll assume they just didn't trust you not to install some crap on it.
Nonsense!
Theez r the real photos of the phone in Brazil:
http://lojaonline.claro.com.br/lojaonline/filtrarDetalhesAparelho.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=4263f1f235beb155aa42cd3d673c0b20&produto=8786&plano=-1&cor=-1&image=-1&tipoPlano=-1&maisPlanos=true&site=N&LV=300&iLocalidade=58&iCanal=4142&strSegmento=VAR&tipoCliente=N
sexy?