iPhone, Meet the Dell Phone

We mentioned earlier here on the Cell-Phone-Plans.net blog that there seems to be a convergence of netbooks and smartphones on the horizon. For most observers of the mobile computing space, all signs point to the mythical Apple Tablet being the next big leap into the space carved out on opposite ends by the ASUS EEE PC and the Apple iPhone, respectively. But Dell and China Mobile may have them all scooped. Check out the Dell Mini 3i.

The Dell Mini 3i walks like a netbook but talks like a smartphone. It’s got a 3.5-inch widescreen display for high-res photo and video that rivals that of the BlackBerry Storm and also packs a flexible open source platform (OPhone, a Chinese modification of Google’s Android, featured on the T-Mobile G1). It has everything you’d expect from a smartphone including Bluetooth, GPS, a 3-megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash and video as well as some photo-editing capabilities. Overall, the device (categorized as a tablet/PDA) weighs 3.7 ounces and holds up to 32GB on a microSD card.

It’s hard to say what this might mean for North American markets. On the one hand, there isn’t always crossover in Chinese and North American cellular markets (although China boasts the largest cellular market by subscribers). But this does mark the first time that Dell, a Texas-based PC-maker, has thrown its hat into the mobile ring to compete with the likes of the popular  LG phones, Motorola phones and Nokia phones. And as the newfangled Dell smartphone bears the same moniker as its wildly successful line of netbooks, it may not be a complete stretch to expect Dell to begin dabbling in some serious mobile computing (maybe even a Dell Tablet phone?). It’ll be interesting to see Dell take on Palm, Sony Ericsson and the rest of the bunch in the smartphone space.

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