Dell debuts first U.S. smartphone at $100
Dell Inc. has released on August 24, 2010, its first U.S. smartphone, the Aero, shown in this undated publicity photograph.
Credit: Reuters/Courtesy Dell/Handout
LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dell Inc on Tuesday released its first U.S. smartphone, entering the increasingly crowded market with a 3.5-inch Android device called the Aero that costs about $100 on AT&T network.
The long-anticipated move by the computer manufacturer puts Dell in competition with Apple Inc, the market leader in smartphones, and with a clutch of other phones that use Google Inc's Android operating system.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said its new smartphone will sell for $99.99 with a 2-year contract from AT&T, or $299.99 without the contract.
Dell said the Aero will be one of the lightest Android smartphones in the United States, and will support Adobe Systems Inc's Flash software. That sets Dell apart from Apple, which has declined to use Flash on its mobile devices.
The personal computer maker entered the smartphone market in late 2009 with the release of its Mini 3 in China. The company also released a 5-inch tablet called the Streak this month, which also runs on Android and uses the AT&T network for phone calls. That will compete with Apple's iPad.
The worldwide smartphone market is expected to grow 36 percent to 247 million units in 2010 from 182 million in 2009 according to IT research outfit iSuppli.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Richard Chang)
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I am tired of AT&T, I want one of these but I will not switch to AT&T for it.
Android smartphones are becoming a commodity just like PCs did. While this is great for us consumers, it is poison for Apple and other high end mobile device manufacturers. It is interesting to note that Apple sells a very high portion of high end PCs, but what is misleading about this statistic is that the only reason for this is, no PC costs as much as a high end MAC, even though the PCs sport higher performance. It’s a bit like saying that Rolex sells more high end watches than Timex. Sure they do but that is because Times doesn’t even make a watch that costs $5,000.
In the end we will see Android phones take over the market just like Windows PCs took over the PC market. The transition to Android may be quicker however because people have almost no investment in their phone compared to the hardware, software and learning curve that they invested into their MAC before giving it all up for a PC. Almost every phone gets replaced every two years anyway, and people invest very little in apps that they would still want to move to their new phone. And learning to use an Android phone after using an Iphone (or even if you never owned a smartphone) takes about a day (I know because I just did it, and I am 50 years old).
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