Michael Dell: We're still working on a smartphone

Reacting to reports that Dell's first attempts at building a smartphone which could compete with the Apple iPhone had been met with blank stares from cellular carriers, Michael Dell went public at a Tokyo speech this week to announce that it was "true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices," indicating that Dell's smartphone dreams may eventually be realized after all.

Dell stopped short of announcing any specific products, but added that the company had long been developing cellular-capable products due to the 3G radios it embeds in many of its laptops and that it has agreements in place with carriers, "so it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future."

Of course, sticking a chip in a laptop and designing a cell phone from scratch are two different monsters, and Dell also mentioned that acquisition remained a possibility, though probably a distant one.

Other sources contend that Dell's upcoming phone is likely to remain a Windows Mobile handset and that Android is a possibility down the line, according to sources at Dell's Taiwan-based manufacturing and design partners. Here's hoping Dell gets its act together, because once the Palm Pre hits the market, it's going to be tougher than ever for a new player to crack this industry.