Dell has been building 3G integration into its notebooks for quite some time now, and considering its wealth of experience in electronics design and manufacture, smartphones seem like a smart move.

Competitors such as Acer and Asus (which joined up with GPS specialists Garmin) have already stolen a march.

Indeed, Dell already gave it a shot, but its early efforts were rejected by the phone carriers – mainly due to their designs not being different enough to grab consumer interest.

Rumours are circulating now that Dell is either considering building a new range of feature rich handsets, or acquiring an established company already in the mobile field, such as Palm.

“It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices,” CEO Michael Dell during a speech given in Tokyo. “We don’t have any announcements to share today, but stay tuned as when we have new news we will share that with you.”