Dell has backed away from its smartphone plans, outlined last summer, and ruled out any attack on the handset market, despite its overall ambition of becoming a consumer electronics major.
Chief operating officer Kevin Rollins said this week that the presence of Nokia would make handsets a difficult market to break into and that the sector is less attractive than other consumer devices because so much profit and balance of power goes to the mobile operators.
The new strategy reverses Dell’s plans, announced in July, to launch a smartphone based on Windows Mobile. The company says it retains its determination to be the first PC maker with a realistic claim to deliver much-vaunted ‘ubiquitous connectivity’ but will focus this effort on the traditional Axim PDA, and will integrate Wi-Fi and cellular mobile connectivity into this device as well as into most of its notebook range.
