Tuesday, August 24, 2010
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — Dell Inc. said today its Aero smart phone is now on sale in the U.S. for $99 with a two-year AT&T contract.
Dell has been selling similar phones in China and Brazil since late last year and has been promising a U.S. version since January.
The world's No. 2 personal computer maker, behind Hewlett-Packard Co., has been looking for ways to diversify its business as profit margins on traditional PCs have grown thinner and thinner.
Dell also wants to stay relevant as more everyday computing tasks get done on smart phones instead of desktops and laptops.
The Dell Aero uses an older version of Google Inc.'s Android operating system than many competing phones on the market today.
The Aero uses version 1.5, also called "cupcake," while most phones now use version 1.6 or higher. Dell says it has done a significant amount of work adding features to the base Google system.
The Aero has a 3.5-inch touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera, and it has photo and video editing functions built in. Dell says the Aero can sync with Windows Media Player and music without copy protection from Apple Inc.'s iTunes.