Report: No Dell "iPhone killer" coming

About a year ago, rumors bubbled up that Dell was working on a belated entry into the cell phone market, with a specific eye toward creating that most unreachable of gadgets, the "iPhone killer." One rumor even held that Dell would be the first company to release a phone using Google's Android OS.

That didn't happen, of course, as Dell never released a cell phone at all, much less an iPhone killer.

Now word arrives courtesy of analyst Shaw Wu that might shed some light on what occurred. Wu claimed this weekend in a research report that Dell did indeed build a cell phone, but it was essentially rejected by the wireless carriers.

Why? As Tech Trader Daily notes, it was "too Dell-like."

That phrase immediately brings to mind Dell's attempt at outdoing the Apple iPod. You can be forgiven if you don't remember the Dell Digital Jukebox (circa 2003), a chunky MP3 player that garnered lukewarm reviews in part because it couldn't play albums in the correct order. (It also didn't help that the thing weighed nearly half a pound.)

Wu reports that Dell did indeed prototype a phone running Android as well as one running Windows Mobile, but that carriers were unimpressed not just with its features in comparison to the iPhone but to phones from HTC, Samsung, LG, and others. Wu also says Dell wasn't willing to subsidize the phone very heavily, which it would have had to do to compete... but which also would have made the phone a money-loser, at least initially. And yet Dell is likely continuing to tinker with a cell phone, so the idea of the dPhone may be down, but it's certainly not out.

As a side note, I love Savitz's idea that Dell should simply bid to acquire Palm and use its upcoming Pre as its entry into the cell phone space. Palm would be cheap to acquire right now -- a couple billion ought to do it -- but if the Pre's a hit, that price is going to go through the roof... and make the competition in this space that much more difficult. And if Dell doesn't buy Palm... why not someone else?

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