Rumorama: Dell To Release iPhone-Killer?

Dell seems to be going crazy this year. They have seen the return of Daddy Dell, the company's namesake Michael Dell, in what some have called a blatant attempt to recreate the phenomenal turn-around Apple has seen since the return of Saint Jobs. They've also launched a few fairly high profile products, including the XPS M1330 laptop and the XPS One desktop (which tries to emulate the iconic iMac look non-to-subtly).

But now it seems that Dell may have another card up their sleeve: Forbes magazine is speculating the existence of an upcoming Dell Smartphone (dPhone, anyone?). Reportedly, the phone will feature an mp3 player, video playback and Internet access. There was no discussion of a touch-screen or a QWERTY keyboard, but there could easily be both. Of course, Dell has no official word on the product, but we have all seen how good Dell is at keeping secrets.

So if there's no official word, what's sparking the rumor? Mainly Mr. Dell's refocused business model, and the hiring of Ron Garriques, the man that oversaw the development of the rediculously popular Motorola Razr. The idea is that Mr. Garriques was brought on board to add a spark of creativity to the product development side of things, but why not tap into his expertise with phones? And who better to attack the monster that is the iPhone than the man created the original "must have" phone?

We'll be keeping our ears to the ground for this one. Ok, I'll be keeping my ear to the ground... I'm starting to realize that I may be the only non-Apple guy in the Castle. Also, even though the title is a bit pretentious, check out the Forbes article for a pretty good read.

The Second Coming [Forbes}
[via: Gizmodo]