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Rumors of Google and Dell iPhone Rival
An anonymous reader writes "Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell.
Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month's 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, although Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future."
Competition is Good. We're just at the beginning. (And just catching up to the Japanese!)
Despite this most likely happening right after duke nukem forever comes out, if it does happen, it'll be a great thing to have. Right now Apple needs a rival. If they sit at the top alone with the iPhone, it won't have any incentive to get better. Google is just the company to give them this competition, and Dell's equally enormous resources will surely fuel the hardware side of the development.
Remember the Dell DJ?
Dell is good at selling commodity products to businesses and value consumers. When they try and move up the food chain, they don't do so well, the Alienware acquisition notwithstanding.
...and the Axim is the top currently selling pda from Dell.
Half baked and abandoned hardware - yeah, that's what I really want in a device.
Sorry, but there has got to be a better hardware vendor to choose than Dell for such a venture. Dell consumer is about high turnover and commodity parts that can be changed with the wind when prices fluctuate - not what I want in a phone builder. Doesn't Nokia or Moto want a piece of this kind of action?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
You might want to sit back and have a look at this
Yup, Dell hardware powers Google's search appliances (a PowerEdge 2950 to be exact wit ha funky yellow bezel), Google software comes on all Dells. While that's not big deal, there's even a Dell/Google Portal. Basically, they already have a partnership.
Given that the last sentence of the linked story is incorrect - Dell currently does not manufacture its own range of handhelds - there's a good chance that there may be some flames accompanying this smoke, for the simple reason that Google aren't a hardware company. They play the tech market more like MS in that they supply software and services, but partner to build devices.
The Googell
Ain't necessarily so.
Specifically, Google has put a lot of weight behind Android. If Google sells an 'own brand' phone - even if it's a Google/Dell own brand phone - then that kills all other Android phones stone dead, because none of the other serious mobile phone vendors will want to be using a competitor's OS. So Google, who aren't stupid, are not going to do this.
This rumour is one of two things:
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Anyone with taste will tell you that experience shows that being tasteful is almost detrimental to the success of anything...
I think Google should partner with a technology company to provide the hardware instead of Dell. Dell has no R&D to speak of. They take off-the-shelf parts, brand them and sell a warranty. This partnership is on a fast train to also-ran city.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
"anything-that-plays-music" is a competitor to the ipod the same way beer is a competitor to wine. you can argue they're diferent classes of beverage, but it doesn't change the fact they're competitors.
just because apple's marketing is way more efficient at creating hype, doesn't change the fact that the iphone has _hundreds_ of competitors that apeal to the "i just want a phone that makes calls" crowd, and bunch of competition on the smartphone area.
one guy here at the office offered me an iphone he brought from US, but i turned it down for a motorola ming, smaller, does everything the iphone does plus more, costs less, there's a lot of homebrew and commercial apps and is not chained to itunes. so yes, the ming IS a competitor. so are the N95, treo, blackbery, etc.
same for the ipod. i only have one because i bought used for less than half the price of a new one, otherwise i would have bought something else.
believe it or not, apple doesn't have a monopoly on cool gadgets.
What ? Me, worry ?
I think most of us would have. Linux has always been gaining ground and improving. While Mac has made a massive comeback by making some real solid tech. MS on the other hand has just sat around making lock out tech and trying to convince everyone that anything MS did not start is a dangerous piece of hippy technology. Saying someone else sucks only works for so long before people start asking questions.
Seriously people, this tag is getting massively overused. Dell making a cell phone is not the same thing as, say, implanting neural tissue from a pig into paralyzed children or building robots with machine guns. The worst thing that could go wrong here is that Dell might make a shitty phone and lose money. BFD.
Anyone else who's sick of whatcouldpossiblygowrong abuse, please go ahead and put in a !whatcouldpossiblygowrong into the tags box.
Causation can cause correlation
Kind of OT, but could we please stop tagging articles with "whatcouldpossiblygowrong"? Aside from the fact that is stopped being funny after the 2nd or 3rd time, it kind of negates the purpose of having a tag if every single article gets the same tag.
adding a projector into the phone...
as described by Microvision's statement that they are in talks with a major company. Could you imagine a phone with a projector? I sure could... and I want one.
From the grandparent comment: It's not a Mac vs Linux thing -- as the poster above states, there are very successful Windows Mobile phones that are doing a much better job at business applications than iPhone. Blackberry and Palm are sort of run-of-the-mill these days and don't offer much more than a normal Internet-ready phone. Exchange integration is the big thing -- everyone wants their calendar anywhere, even if they don't have Internet access.
One thing I'd really like on the iPhone is a grdesktop client and ssh client. Exchange integration will make the iPhone widely accepted by businesses running Exchange, but IT guys need their tools too.
I think the iPod's success is more to do with the user interface than the form factor.
It doesn't look that different to other mp3 players, but the incredibly simple and intuitive interface made it accessible to millions of folk who would not have put up with the UIs of other portable media devices.
If I search the contact-list, I might get 100,000 matches.
Most of the Windows phones look so similar that they are primarily Windows phones with MS-brand images being larger than the manufacturers logos etc(Ooh look! A Windows phone, I wonder who makes it). The MS/Windows brand is the strongest brand on these devices.
The first one or two Android phones will get a lot of reflected Googleshine, just like the launch of the first few MS phones.
Engineering is the art of compromise.