Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Subscribe
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Subscribe
    Home Latest News
    • Mobile
    • Networking
    • PC Hardware
    • Storage

    Dell Will Sell Smartphones in U.S. in 2010, Michael Dell Reveals

    Written by

    Chris Preimesberger
    Published October 14, 2009
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell told a reporter Oct. 13 that his company plans to market an Android smartphone in the United States sometime early next year.
      Dell made his revelation in a separate conversation after finishing a 75-minute appearance with the Wall Street Journal’s Don Clark, staged before an audience of about 300 in a dinner program sponsored by the Churchill Club.
      Dell has been rumored for several months to be announcing an agreement to provide its Android-powered smartphone to AT&T for the U.S. market. Dell confirmed this to tech journalist Jean-Baptiste Su of TechPulse and the French News Agency and told him that it will happen probably in the first months of next year, Su told eWEEK.
      Dell launched its mini 3i smartphone last August in partnership with China Mobile, which uses a specially designed version of Google’s Android software called oPhone OS. However, for the U.S. version of this phone, Dell may use an older Android version and make minor user interface and service tweaks, Su wrote in his blog.
      Earlier in the evening, Michael Dell had hinted about his company’s ideas for the smartphone business during the conversation with Clark.
      “The Internet in your pocket … and new platforms that are coming out are pretty interesting. Some of them resemble things that we’re pretty familiar with, in terms of open systems and the ability to compete in an open ecosystem,” Dell said. “I think you’ll begin to see us show up there, gradually.”
      The CEO addressed a number of other topics, including the impending public launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 (“You’ll love your PC again!”), the 2007 EqualLogic acquisition (“This company had about 3,300 customers when we acquired it; we’ve added 10,000 new customers”), and the increasing dominance of the server in the data center.
      “A lot of what goes on in the data center is being gobbled up by servers,” Dell said. “We see switching, for example, rapidly collapsing into the servers. You’ve got virtualized switches, but even the switches that aren’t virtualized — they’re now sitting inside blade chassis.

      Click here for more on Michael Dell at the Churchill Club of Silicon Valley.

      “Not that long ago, it looked like intellligence was getting sucked out of the server and it was going somehow into the network, but actually now it looks like it’s going the other way. The server is becoming the epicenter of the data center, and you’re seeing the switches get embedded inside the server. I’m sure there are plenty of other opinions out there.”
      Increased virtualization in data center servers has driven increases in the sales of virtualized storage, Dell said, adding that his company is bullish about the continued growth of the storage market in general.
      Dell claimed that the acquisition of EqualLogic has made his company the No. 1 seller of iSCSI SANs, the “fastest growing part of storage [market], and we think that’s a very attractive area.”
      On the trend of increasing sales of cheap netbooks — mostly being manufactured by Far Eastern companies — Dell said there are “a fair amount of customers not being that satisfied with the smaller screen and lower performance part — unless it’s a secondary machine, or it’s the very first machine. And the expectations are pretty low.
      “But as a replacement for a high-performing machine for an experienced user, this is not a good experience, and we don’t see users being very happy in that scenario,” Dell said.
      In explaining how various computer form factors need to be closer fits for their daily usage, Dell told about a new product his company has designed and is currently marketing to schools, the Lattitude 2100.
      “It looks like a netbook or notebook, but it’s actually a system,” Dell said. “It comes on a cart, with a whole bunch of these things. They come in different colors, you roll the cart in, you take them out, give them to the students. You pump them back in, they charge up, they have the networking all built in. Our sales of this 2100 system have been many times what we thought, and the schools just love it, because it fits their application really perfectly.”
      However, as a general-purpose notebook [for the business market], Dell said, the 2100 “is not really a great solution because of the screen size and performance.”

      Chris Preimesberger
      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.
      Linkedin Twitter

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.