AT&T's CEO Did/Didn't Confirm a Dell Smartphone

During a panel at this week's Mobile World Congress, AT&T's CEO referred to upcoming smartphones from Dell. Problem is, Dell hasn't announced any such thing.

Ralph De La Vega, CEO AT&T Mobility, said "Dell announced they're entering the smartphone market." However, he later re-canted this statement.

This leaves a burning question, was De La Vega completely mistaken about a Dell smartphone, or was he just talking about it too soon?

Dell Definitely Seems Interested
Recently, several anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal that Dell has had people looking into the smartphone market for more than a year, talking to software developers, component makers, and device manufacturers.

The group has reportedly created prototypes in a couple of the standard smartphone designs: a slider with a hardware keyboard, and a tablet with a touchscreen and an on-screen keyboard. There's no word on whether Dell prefers one of these over the other.

Dell is reportedly considering releasing either Windows Mobile or Android smartphones.

As it was the CEO AT&T Mobility who mentioned a Dell-branded smartphone this week, the name of at least one of the wireless carriers interested in this device seems certain.

Source: PC Magazine