14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors that Dell and Google will launch the first Android-based mobile phone appeared last week, making mobile fans imagine how nice such a Dell-Google phone would be. There were even speculations saying the Android Dell phone is already built and it will be presented at the Mobile World Congress in February. In the end, none of these rumors proved to be true, as Dell denied any intention of collaborating with Google and its Android OS. Moreover, the American electronics producer even said it won't go to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, so it's more than obvious the mobile industry is not a primary concern of the company at the moment.
If the rumors had been true, Dell's Android phone would have been the first mobile phone to come from the American producer, but not its first mobile device. The company entered the PDA market back in 2002 with Dell Axim X5, an affordable device running Pocket PC 2002. However, the Axim PDA family was discontinued on April 9, 2007, the last model manufactured being Dell Axim X51, a high-end PDA running Windows Mobile 5.
Currently, there is nothing official from Dell that can lead to the fact the producer will make PDAs again (or phones). Despite this, it's quite possible to see new mobile devices from Dell in the future, maybe even an Android-based phone. The company is currently the world's second largest seller of personal computers, after Hewlett-Packard, so it certainly has all it takes to make a good phone based on Google's Android platform (or on any other platform). Although the Axim line of PDAs was not as successful as the company wanted, a Dell phone based on the Android OS has high chances of becoming a popular phone. Let's see if it will exist first.