The uber-competitive smartphone market has claimed a fresh victim: Dell, stalwart of the PC-making industry, has decided enough is enough and is canning its phone-making efforts for good.
It's hardly a surprise in all honesty, such has been the complete lack of anything resembling a decent Dell smartphone recently. In fact, you could argue the biggest news here is the fact that Dell was still actually making phones in the first place.
And part of that would be because the company had already scaled back its efforts dramatically, with the decision to pull out of the US smartphone market earlier this year having left just China as a final outpost for the company's mobile aspirations.
Dell's most recent efforts – the Venue and Venue Pro – were built on Windows Phone 7, but only sold in small numbers, and while the Android thing has worked out for some, the company doesn't feel there's any way into a sector of the market that's already over-subscribed.
Dell VP Jeff Clarke revealed as much this week in announcing the company's decision at the Dell World conference, saying turning around its smartphone business Dell would need “a lot of investments to really be successful”.
He argued that with so many physical devices now on offer, the focus was shifting more to added-value content and services now, and that between the likes and Google and Amazon, there simply isn't enough breathing room at the moment to justify the effort.
“Amazon is selling books and Google is making it up with search,” he said. “So far we couldn't find a way to build a business on Android.”
Going forward, Dell will now focus purely on its traditional strength in the PC market through its range of Windows 8 PCs, laptops and tablets. But Clarke did suggest it wasn't writing off the possibility of reviving its Android-based tablet line (remember the Streak 5 and Streak 7?).
“It doesn't mean we're not looking at Android,” he insisted.
Via Slashgear
