Has AT&T outed Dell's smartphone?

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 18 Feb 2009 at 10:49

Rumours of an imminent Dell smartphone have been given fresh impetus by a slip from AT&T's chief executive during a press conference.

At one point during his Mobile World Congress keynote session, AT&T chief executive Ralph de la Vega noted: "Acer announced they're entering the smartphone market; Dell announced they're entering the smartphone market."

The announcement appeared to confirm a Wall Street Journal report that the company would release an Android-based smartphone by the end of February, in a bid to offset falling PC sales.

However, a Dell spokesperson was firm in their rebuttal this morning, claiming "AT&T made no announcement about Dell entering the smartphone market." It also refused to comment on a potential launch.

AT&T has also been busy trying to stuff the cat back into the bag: "Ralph was referring to the fact that there's a lot of news coverage about a Dell smartphone and was commenting that OEMs are coming to market all the time and not that a new device was officially announced by Dell," says a statement from the company posted to InformationWeek.

Still, those rumours refuse to die down.