Dell, Baidu To Team Up On Smartphones & Tablets
What do an American PC maker and a Chinese search engine have in common? They both want to take a piece of the mobile pie away from their competitors in China. Dell and Baidu are planning to work together to develop smartphones and tablets, presumably to break into the vast Chinese mobile market.
We already know that Dell has been knocking on China’s door in the mobile space, and joining up with an established, dominant online Chinese entity such as Baidu makes sense and could help it snag some market share from the likes of Apple and Alibaba.
Baidu, for its part, is clearly headed toward expanding into the mobile market. The company is developing Android-based mobile platform Yi, which looks to become a full-fledged mobile OS soon.
Although the Dell Streak 5 was discontinued in the U.S. a few weeks ago, it may be the first handset to run the Baidu Yi mobile OS. Dell seems to have a soft spot for the device (the company’s farewell page for the Steak 5 indicated as much), so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it pegged as the poster child for the new partnership.
A launch date for the first Dell-Baidu mobile device is unclear, although some reports have it pegged as early as November. (It’s worth noting that Baidu hasn’t yet commented on the partnership.)
We already know that Dell has been knocking on China’s door in the mobile space, and joining up with an established, dominant online Chinese entity such as Baidu makes sense and could help it snag some market share from the likes of Apple and Alibaba.
Baidu, for its part, is clearly headed toward expanding into the mobile market. The company is developing Android-based mobile platform Yi, which looks to become a full-fledged mobile OS soon.
Although the Dell Streak 5 was discontinued in the U.S. a few weeks ago, it may be the first handset to run the Baidu Yi mobile OS. Dell seems to have a soft spot for the device (the company’s farewell page for the Steak 5 indicated as much), so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it pegged as the poster child for the new partnership.
A launch date for the first Dell-Baidu mobile device is unclear, although some reports have it pegged as early as November. (It’s worth noting that Baidu hasn’t yet commented on the partnership.)
