Dell Mini 3I smartphone handsets for China Mobile soon

Dell Mini 3I may be the name of the new Dell smartphone. The Dell Mini 3I, which will initially launch in China, has a 3 megapixel camera and a 3.5 inch 360 X 540 pixel touchscreen.

The Dell Mini 3I will be a 2G candybar smartphone, with no support for 3G wireless networks. Dell did not officially announce the launch of the Dell Mini 3I, but the product was “outed” as part of the launch of the China Mobile online platform for downloading games, music, movies and software. The China Mobile online application platform also hosts products and software from many mobile phone manufacturers, including Nokia and Samung.

Dell denied later that the Dell Mini 3I is its maiden launch product in the cellphone market. The Dell Mini 3I, the company said, is only a prototype of the actual mobile phone it plans to introduce.

The Dell Mini 3I sports the Android mobile phone operating system, developed by Google. The system is called the Open Mobile System. The Dell Mini 3I also has Bluetooth, Assisted GPS, micro SD card slot and a 950 mAH battery.

If Dell gets China Mobile to launch the new mobile phone, the Dell Mini 3I, in its network, it will be a major coup for the American computer maker, whose market share has been dwindling. China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile phone network operator by subscribers, and the launch of the a cheap, Android-powered 2G phone into the gigantic Chinese market will bring large volumes for debuting Dell.

Neither Dell nor China Mobile has made any commitment about when the new smartphone will be released. It is also not clear whether Dell will launch the new smartphone in other markets like India as well as North America and the Europe. The company has kept the development and details of the smartphone Dell Mini 3I under wraps so far.

According to Boy Genius Report, the Dell Mini 3I will have no WiFi support, but will come with quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, and a camera with flash.

Meanwhile, China’s second largest operator China Unicorn is believed to be in negotiations with Apple to sell the iPhone in China.

Though Dell has been tight-lipped on its smartphone project, many websites have reported that Dell’s smartphone did not find favour with the US cellphone network carriers and operators. It is believed that the operators found no “differentiation” in Dell mobile phones which would set them apart from strong rivals like BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia. It is not clear whether Dell presented the same Dell Mini 3I to the American operators, but if it did, there is a good chance that the phone was rejected, especially since it doesnt have 3G or WiFi.

Yet, on a practical level, it makes sense for Dell to sell large volumes of the cheaper Android-powered device in the less-competitive Chinese market through a big operator like China Mobile, rather than sell fewer volumes of a higher priced mobile in the more competitive American market. So if Dell manages to get China Mobile on board for its cheap, 2G, non-WiFi smartphone, it could be a commercial coup for the computer manufacturer whose revenues are under assault from cheap PC manufacturers like ASUS and Acer.

Unlike in India, the success of mobile phone launches across the world is heavily depended on giant carrier networks like AT&T, Vodafone and China Mobile, who hawk the cellphones and smartphones through their dealerships. With the backing of their arrangements with mobile phone manufacturers, they are able to sell the mobile handsets at a discount with the proviso that the buyer has to use the phone with the same operator for an extended duration of time, during which the operators recoups the subsidy paid for enabling the cheap purchase of the mobile phone. In contrast, in India, individuals are not bound by such contracts, and freely pick up mobiles from the market and use them with any mobile operator. Hence, the influence wielded by operators is far less in India than abroad.