Dell to fight with iPhone and Blackberry - set to announce Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobiles

Dell is going to be the latest electronics maker to enter the smartphone market, following in the footsteps of Apple. Dell is reportedly entering the smartphone market. Dell would face stiff competition from Apple, Research in Motion, and Palm, among others. RIM and Apple hold 70 percent of the U.S. market for smartphones.

Dell is expected to announce two iPhone and Blackberry competitors sometime next month. The phones will run on Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile respectively.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Dell will introduce in February at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona two new mobile phones, set to go head to head with market leaders Apple and Research In Motion.

One of the phones will be touchscreen-only similar to Apple's iPhone, while the other is a slider-style phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, similar to the T-Mobile G1. The other technical specifications are not available yet.

Dell could launch its first device in February.

T-Mobile takes G1 Android phone to Europe

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile has announced that it will soon begin selling its G1 Android phone in several European countries. The phone has been available for the last few months only in the United States and Great Britain. The first countries on the list are the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Poland.

The initial response to the G1 has been very strong, with hundreds of thousands sold in the US by the end of 2008. T-Mobile Chief Executive Hamid Akhavan describes the phone as the most successful ever sold in this country. It is also reported that the G1 will be offered for the subsidized price of $1.33 (EU1.03) in Germany, along with a two-year contract. In the US, it sells for $179 with a two-year contract.

For the Australian market, Samsung has announced that it would bring out an Android phone by the second quarter of this year.

Get ready for Cupcake
There are also reports of a major update to the Android software, code-named Cupcake. The update is expected to support video recording and video sharing.

The Android mobile platform was launched in late 2007 by Google, along with a consortium of other companies who endorsed the open-source platform. A large community of third-party developers has begun to create applications for Android, which can help drive sales. In addition to games and basic applications, developers are beginning to turn to more business-oriented software.