It’s been a frustrating few years for Dell, one of the largest PC makers in the world. After trying, and failing multiple times to gain a foothold in the US smartphone market, the company has thrown in the towel in order to focus on other opportunities.
Dell entered the US market in 2010 with the massively ill-conceived Dell Aero Android smartphone. The Aero had previously been introduced in China, but US consumers passed over the device, which shipped with outdated software even by Android standards. The Dell Streak 5 had a market segment all to itself at least; it was a massive 5-inch slate before the Galaxy Note was even a twinkle in Samsung’s eye.
Hoping to start fresh, Dell created the Venue and Venue Pro. The Venue was a fairly standard, though attractive Android handset. The Venue Pro, however, was a portrait Qwerty slider running Windows Phone 7. Both devices launched with some serious bugs, and Dell was slow to roll out fixes. The Venue Pro failed to even make it to most retail outlets, and neither device was subsidized by a carrier.
Efforts to sell a 7-inch Streak tablet on T-Mobile was also a flop thanks to its extremely high price on-contract, and old software. Windows 8 could still offer the company an opportunity to re-enter the US market with mobile devices, but these devices would likely be more computer than tablet.
Dell isn’t getting out of the mobile device business altogether, though. It continues to sell the Venue devices in Asia, and a Streak-branded phone in Japan. The company will continue making low-cost phones and tablets for sale in emerging markets.
via PC World
Dell gives up on the smartphone dream