Dell is getting into the smartphone space in a very big way in the near future. With plans to launch a Windows Phone 7 handset, plus a major leak back in April that showed the Austin, Texas based company was planning on releasing several Android powered devices, the battle to get an expensive piece of plastic, metal and glass inside our pockets is heating up rather nicely.
What you’re looking at above is the Dell Thunder. It’s supposed to have a 4.1 inch OLED screen. I’ll believe it when I see it because HTC was recently forced to switch to Sony’s Super LCD due to Samsung’s inability to cope with OLED demand. It’s also supposed to have an 8 megapixel camera that can shoot 720p video, just like the Motorola Droid X, the iPhone, and pretty much any new “super phone” hitting the market.
Right now the model that’s been leaked is running Android 2.1, but as far as we know it’s going to launch with Android 2.2, better known as FroYo. Price points, launch dates, both are things we’d like to know, but currently have no knowledge of.
I just want to know whatever happened to the Dell Aero? That device launched on AT&T in March and we haven’t seen any in the wild. It’s as if AT&T said “nahhh, we’re just kidding” when they announced the device. Making a few devices to show to operators and leak to gadget blogs is one thing, but producing these things en masse isn’t the easiest of tasks to achieve. Just ask Motorola, who can’t keep up with the demand for their Droid series of devices.
Time will tell as to whether or not Dell will make any real impact in this space. The Streak is interesting for what it is, but again, it’s a niche (as in low quantity) product. Dell’s success with scale has been proven in the past in the PC space, but mobile phones?
Not so much.
[Via: Engadget, who also has a brief, grainy and shaky video on their site]