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Dell plans to join smartphone race with ‘Google phone’

US computer maker Dell reportedly plans to roll out a “Google phone” as market momentum builds for smartphones with Android operating systems backed by the Internet giant.

Dell is teaming with telecom colossus AT&T, exclusive carrier for Apple’s iPhones in the US, to launch an Android-based smartphone next year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

AT&T and Texas-based Dell declined to comment on the story.

The report came a day after Verizon Wireless and Google announced that mobile phones powered by Android software would be introduced in the next few weeks.

Verizon Wireless and Google said they planned to commit “substantial resources” to a strategic partnership to deliver “leading-edge mobile applications, services and devices.”

“Through this partnership, we hope to deliver greater innovation in the mobile space to consumers across the US,” Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said.

Verizon Wireless and Google said they plan to co-develop several Android-based devices made by “leading handset manufacturers.”

A growing number of US telecom carriers and manufacturers have been adopting Google’s open-source Android software in bids to challenge the Apple iPhone and Blackberry from Research in Motion.

Android is already being used to run smartphones from Motorola and T-Mobile and US wireless ­carrier Sprint Nextel and Taiwan’s HTC (宏達電) have announced plans to release a touch-screen phone this month powered by Android.

Technology industry tracker Gartner predicts that Android-based smartphones will capture 14 percent of the global market by the year 2012, as compared with 2 percent today, according to a report in Computerworld.

Meanwhile, Dell announced on Wednesday that it was closing a desktop computer manufacturing plant in the US next year and laying off some 900 workers.

Dell said it expected the closure of the plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to be completed in January.

The company said “approximately 905 employees” would be affected and about 600 would be released next month.

“This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company,” said Frank Miller, vice president of Dell’s public business unit supply chain.

In a statement, Dell said the move was “part of an ongoing initiative to enhance the long-term value it delivers to customers by simplifying operations and improving efficiency.”

Earlier this year, Dell shifted its Ireland-based manufacturing operation to Poland.

Dell’s net profits have been on the decline recently and it has announced plans to trim US$4 billion in costs by the end of fiscal 2011.
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