Dell to Try their Hand at Smartphones?

JeffKirvin.net's story on Dell's decision to stop making the Axim PDA has two bits of analysis that I full agree with. First: The unconnected PDA is well and truly dead. He writes they may as well have called WM6 Classic "Windows Mobile 6 Vintage" - I'd take that one step further and call it "WM6 Vestigal". WM6 Classic is just like the appendix - it was necessary once, it's not anymore, but it's not been entirely eliminated yet.

Anyway, the other point here is that Dell recently hired a Moto Exec, which should have screamed "smartphone" to me at the time but, for some reason, didn't. Let's hope that Dell follows their old Axim strategy of making top-of-the-line devices instead of their MP3 strategy of rebranding so-so devices.

Given that they just hired former Motorola handset chief Ron Garriques [...] I don’t doubt at all that we’ll see a Dell answer to the Moto Q in due time. But it won’t be called an Axim. The time for Windows Mobile Classic devices has already passed.