14 DAY TRIAL // Recent reports over the Internet indicate that Round Rock, Texas-based PC vendor Dell is planning to announce a new Inspiron netbook system that will be designed to run on the much-appreciated Android operating system. The news about said system surfaced after mobile software developer Bsquare announced on Wednesday that it would port Adobe Flash Lite to Dell's 8.9-inch Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. The system is yet to be officially confirmed by the system vendor, but the announcement points to an upcoming release in the near future.
The Bsquare press release issued on Wednesday morning was later pulled down from the developer's website, but it was quickly reported by Erica Ogg for CNET News. According to a recent news-article on the subject, the press release claims that Dell “leverages Bsquare's Android competency to improve the Adobe Flash Lite experience on Dell's Mini Inspiron 910.” When contacted for comments on the press release, a Dell representative reportedly denied the allegations that Dell was making an Android netbook and that in the Bsquare press release was an erroneous reference to Dell's name.
These latest reports follow a series of similar rumors according to which a number of netbook makers are currently testing the Android platform for their upcoming netbook releases. Companies such as HP, ASUS, MSI are said to be planning the release of a future Android netbook, which will provide users with an alternative to the more successful Windows operating system.
Android has been specifically designed as an open-source OS for smartphones but, given the increasing popularity of netbooks, the operating system is regarded as an alternative to Microsoft's successful Windows XP OS, which has been enabled on the majority of netbooks shipped throughout 2008 and early 2009. The first company to have announced such a product is China's Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies.