Dell opts for Android for consumer smartphone
Oddly, Pro version runs WinPho 7
CES 2011 Dell today announced a new smartphone, the Venue, adopting the Sony Ericsson approach of offering a vanilla version of the handset sans keyboard and a "Pro" version with a slide-out Qwerty deck.
Sony Ericsson, however, is at the very least consistent in its choice of operating system. The Xperia X10 Mini and the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, say, both run Android. The Dell Venue is an Android 2.2 job, which will immediately confuse anyone previously considering the already available Venue Pro, which runs Windows Phone 7.
This is particuarly odd since WinPho 7 is arguably a more consumer-centric OS than Android.
Whatever, the Venue's highlights include a 4.1in, 480 x 800 OLED display, 1GHz Qualcomm processor, quad-band GSM/Edge and dual-band HSDPA 3G cellular connectivity, 8Mp camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and either 1GB or 512MB of on-boar memory, supplemented with Micro SD cards.
Speaking of Sony Ericsson, there's something of that vendor's design style in the Venue's looks. We can't quite pin it down, but the Venue wouldn't look out of place in SE's roster.
Again, as per the Dell Streak 7 tablet, the company didn't say when the Venue will be released, or how much it'll cost. ®
COMMENTS
Dell should stick with computers ...
they have plenty enough shortcomings to keep them busy for years.
hackzaw anyone
with such close hw spec, i wonder how long it will before android versions of the pro will take to appear?
India
Interesting that in India Dell have released the ZTE Blade as their own Android device.
Sadly... bad user reports
I'm desperate for a WinPho 7 with a keyboard and proper size screen (i.e. 4+) and this is the only one, sadly however, the units in use "in the wild" are reporting lots of crashes and lock-ups :(
Guess I'll have to stick to the Omnia 7 for now...
consumer smartphone?
More oddly is their choice of Winphone 7 for the Pro version because Microsoft stated that WinPhone is (indeed) consumer oriented and Windows Mobile would co-excists for profesionals.
So Dell uses the least consumer oriented OS for the "consumer version" and the even worst professional version for the pro. They are are even more daft than most of the current "industry".
I predict another economical crisis in 2011. This time because corps are run by jackasses and greed is the driving force not "consumer intrest".
They use Android on the consumer version because it's cheaper to implement and will probably outsell the "pro" version by a big margin hence gain a lot more profit.
