Dell Gives Cell Phones the Flick

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1815468,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000605' target='_blank'>http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,175...3129TX1K0000605</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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."</i><br /><br />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 <i>"(they) have no immediate plans to announce such a project."</i> One word says it all: Bummer!

[Sven Johannsen]

I can easily see that Dell is not likely to get into the phone market, SmartPhone or PPCPE. Consider Dell's marketing strategy. They sell direct to the consumer through advertising. No stores. The predominant way of getting phones of any kind is through a phone company. Most people don't buy a cell phone without the deep discount offerred by sercive provider subsidies. In most cases it is only one provider that offers a particular high end phone. That's not how Dell works. I can't imagine Dell teaming with Cingular or T-Mobile to market the Axim PE or SP.

Dell of course could conceivably produce a phone at a price point that might make folks buy it directly and then get service independently, but that is a shift in the way phone service is procured in this country anyway. Note you do wind uop as a substandard customer if you are using a non-approved phone on a provider network. The support becomes somewhat spotty.

[carphead]

"begin selling cellular phone subscriptions"

For some reason I find this a interesting wording. I don't recall anybody saying this (including me). The only words I recall see is that they would sell a convergded device.

I notice there is no denial of that just that Dell are interested in Wireless technology. No kidding!

[dma1965]

Dell may not want to get into the cell phone market yet, but I forsee all PDA's become phone capable, and that would force Dell to build a phone, or get out of the PDA business entirely.

[Jon Westfall]

Dell may not want to get into the cell phone market yet, but I forsee all PDA's become phone capable, and that would force Dell to build a phone, or get out of the PDA business entirely.

That's an interesting perdiction. I really don't see GSM or CDMA radios becoming standard in these devices. There is just too much variability. The only way it would work would be to have a quad-band GSM radio with GPRS AND a CDMA/TDMA radio that was Edge capable in the same device. Add in BT &amp; WiFi, and you're likely to end up with 4 radios. With GPS becoming popular (now 5 receivers in the device) our devices would start to get pretty heavy / huge.

There will always be some that want every connectivity feature (i.e. iPAQ 5xxx &amp; 6xxx users, iMate users) and there will be some who are allured to smaller, lighter, cheaper (ugh... Zire users...).

Just my opinion.

[carphead]

There's no reason why GPRS, CDMA/TDMA. BT and Wifi can't be intergrated into the same chips. So far the only reason for it not being done is that manufacturs like to sell phone regionally BUT for convergance devices hopefully it will break that barrier.

I have issues with internal GPS radios as I can't really see a use for them. GSM etc have fairly good location based triangulation for find me type services. On issue with internal GPS radios is the increasing common place installation of heat reflective Windscreens.

In most large family cars (including mine) these are now standard fit. Unless there's a MMX connector on the device for about 30-40% of European cars the internal GPS becomes pointless.

I have a feeling that when HP release the 6500 series and people look at it to be a one stop shop they're going to have a lot of disappointed people.

[ADBrown]

Nitpicks: TDMA is actually the predecessor to GSM, not CDMA, and EDGE is a GSM technology.

I too don't see cellular models ever becoming the only option. There's too many people who don't want to pay for it, can't afford it, can't/won't carry a cell phone, etcetera. I could see long-range wireless connectivity becoming a semi-standard feature in mid-range and higher--if WiMax gets off the ground and becomes cheap, or some other major standard for wireless broadband, the way WiFi is now. Kind of a short/medium/long range wireless trio: BT, WiFi, WiMax. But not cellular tech as it stands now. It's too carrier dominated, and requires too many compromises.

[Phoenix]

Dell's going to have to get into the cell phone market if it wants a future in handhelds. Convergence is where things are headed - we know that - and Dell should, too. Maybe now isn't the right time for them to head that direction, and not to say that a cellular-enabled handheld would be the only choice, but it's obvious Dell will have to at some point, especially as convergent devices increase in popularity and lower in price over time.

[Jon Westfall]

Dell's going to have to get into the cell phone market if it wants a future in handhelds. Convergence is where things are headed - we know that - and Dell should, too. Maybe now isn't the right time for them to head that direction, and not to say that a cellular-enabled handheld would be the only choice, but it's obvious Dell will have to at some point, especially as convergent devices increase in popularity and lower in price over time.

I'm sure Dell with eventually get in the game, but I doubt that we'll get to a point where 100% of handhelds out there will have an integrated phone aspect. After all, we haven't even reached 100% color screens (Thanks Palm) or 100% Wifi. There will always be people who don't want it, thus there will always be manufacturers that don't need to offer it on all models.

[Phoenix]

I'm sure Dell with eventually get in the game, but I doubt that we'll get to a point where 100% of handhelds out there will have an integrated phone aspect. After all, we haven't even reached 100% color screens (Thanks Palm) or 100% Wifi. There will always be people who don't want it, thus there will always be manufacturers that don't need to offer it on all models.

I agree. I don't believe convergent devices will serve as the only choice, especially considering WiMax (and who knows how far-reaching that will be), but I believe that any company looking to compete in the marketplace will seriously need to consider eventually offering at least one model that will provide cellular capability.

There are many companies that have dropped out of the competitive handheld market as it is. But as convergence continues to grow in popularity and affordability, I believe any company wanting to maintain their share of the market will need to offer this type of device.

[ADBrown]

Bah. I think so-called "convergence" is overrated. Most of the converged devices available are well behind conventional handhelds in technology, and because of the carriers many devices are delayed to the point where they need to be put down.

The way I see it, the supposed great wave of convergence is barely a ripple. I think convergence has been pushed as the next big thing by pundits who want to be able to predict huge tidings and momentous changes. But these are the same people who predicted that Bluetooth would change the world as we know it when it hit 99% adoption--which they predicted would happen three years ago. Likewise, they're the people who said that CompactFlash was dead, or that tablets would replace laptops. Personally, I think that converged devices are going to remain a relatively small subset of handhelds as a whole. There's certainly a market for them, but I don't see it being the *entire* market.