Smart-phone analysts say they’re upbeat concerning the prospects for mobile devices dependent on Google Inc.’s Android operating process.

They’re much less specific about regardless of whether Dell Inc. can take Android and turn it into a company jackpot for a selection of mobile items.

Dell has been promoting an Android-based smart telephone known as the Mini three in China and South America because last fall. Its very first U.S. cell phone, the Aero, hasn’t showed up yet in AT&T Inc.’s stores.

The telephone corporation has an exclusive deal with Dell in the U.S. and has pledged to start promoting Dell phones before midyear.

Motorola Inc. already sells Android-based phones through AT&T, and Taiwan’s HTC also is expected to offer Android phones through the cellular phone organization.

“Android is an oncoming storm,” said Michael Morgan, an analyst with ABI Research. He expects Android cell phone makers will create phones that offer many of the same features as Apple Inc.’s popular iPhone but cost considerably much less.

A growing group of companies, including Motorola, Acer, HTC, Dell and Samsung, have announced plans to make Android-based phones or other mobile items.

What’s the attraction? Android’s basic software is free for mobile phone makers to use, and they can modify it to create customized user interfaces.

In addition, an active base of software developers is turning out Android applications that should run on all the new Android-based phones. The AndroLib.com Web site estimates that 9,000 new Android apps were released in March alone.

While the Android market looks promising, analysts say the jury is still out on regardless of whether Dell will become a successful smart-phone player.

“If they’re really serious about getting into this market and building a big company, they’re going to have to spend some serious dollars,” said analyst Iain Gillott with Austin-based consulting firm iGR. “They have got to get people thinking that buying a Dell cell phone is a cool thing to do.”

Although Dell is the world’s third-largest PC maker, its record with consumer electronics has been spotty. Dell introduced a series of portable music players in 2004 and 2005, including the $99 DJ Ditty, but dropped its family of music players in 2006.

“It was an interesting effort but not a cutting-edge device,” Gillott said. “They marketed it somewhat. In the end, they were giving them away, and it died in a few years. They can’t do that with the mobile phone.”

Dell signaled its interest in the cell telephone company in 2007 when it hired former Motorola executive Ron Garriques to run its consumer company. Late last year, Garriques become president of Dell’s newly created communication solutions line of company.

Dell does have some advantages as a newcomer in the market, Gillott said: a strong global brand in computing, ties to millions of company and consumer customers, and a reputation for product value.

In AT&T, Dell also has a link to a carrier that is growing rapidly, thanks in part to its exclusive contract to carry Apple’s iPhone in the U.S.

Gillott said he has talked with experts who have used Dell’s Aero and have been impressed. “The people I talk to say that it is really, really slick,” he said.

Some Web sites claim to have gotten their hands on an Aero, but Dell says such prototypes are not representative of the final product.

AT&T will support the Dell cellular phone somewhat, but Dell will have to back it with strong promotions of its own, Gillott said. And the phones will have to work well and be well received by customers.

“AT&T is incredibly demanding in terms of what they want,” Gillott said. “Dell is going to have to step up here.”

The Aero is Dell’s very first Android-based product, but analysts expect others will follow. Dell already has been showing a tablet device with a 5-inch screen that some gadget Web sites say will be known as the Streak.

Dell looks at mobile devices as a natural addition to its strength in portable computers, analysts say.

“Dell looks at it as moving down the food chain” to much less expensive items, Gillott said. “But Motorola and others are saying, ‘We’ll move up the food chain.’ ”

ABI’s Morgan says Dell can build a place for itself within the broader Android market if it makes the right moves.

Dell “is going to have to play to their strengths” as a maker of reliable, value-oriented items, Morgan said. “There will be space for them to play at the lower end. They don’t have to offer a super-phone.”

Some of the companies in U.S. have already paid fines for being guilty in price-fixing and selling the products at artificially inflated prices to Dell in 1996.

In the federal court in San Francisco Dell filed a complaint recently against some of the companies alleging antitrust and unfair-competition.

The two big companies, Sharp and Hitachi, had admitted that they targeted Dell and overcharged for the panels plea agreements. Sharp is the largest maker of LCDs of Japan and Hitachi is also a giant of Japan that makes household appliances, nuclear reactors and hard-disk drives. Sharp is based in Osaka and Hitachi is Tokyo based in Japan. In 2008 Sharp agreed to pay amount of $120 million as fines and Hitachi agreed to for $31 million in 2009.

In the lawsuit Dell is seeking for triple damages. The company, based in Round Rock, Texas, trails Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Acer Inc. in the market of personal computers.

However, the spokesman of Sharp Chris Loncto and the spokeswomen of Hitachi Lauren Garvey have not officially given any comment on this issue.

Similarly, in federal court in San Francisco, the largest mobile maker of the world Nokia Oyj has also filed a lawsuit against LCD makers. AT&T Inc. has even done the same to the manufacturers.

The case of Dell is Dell v Sharp, 10-01064, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

The pic of Pure reveals a pretty generic slider that to some extent looks like the Verizon ad. It has touchable squares for music, e-mail and also for the RSS feed. The handset uses Zune-esque typography and not only this, it is also apparently a social networking hub handset featuring all the connections to popular websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The Pure reminds users of the sleeker version of Tilt of AT&T. The body of The Turtle is just like a blobby Palm Pre.

There has also been nabbed few specs by the Gizmodo for both the phones, which includes:

The screen of Turtle is 320 by 240 and that of Pure is 480 by 320.
The codenames of both the Turtle and Pure are used in the firmware. However, it do not indicate the names of actual product.
As like Windows 7 and Zune, the OS is based on Windows CE.
Verizon is the carrier.

Earlier, as it was talked about, the Pink of Microsoft, were touted as the killers of iPhones. The same ways as every single release of every single smartphone ever.

In the investor conference replying to a question about the Apple iPad, Randall Stephenson said that he did not think too many new 3G subscriptions can be achieved with it because end consumers would prefer using it with WiFi. Moreover, it will be a month-by-month subscription for iPad from the AT&T, which is rare from the carrier as it usually prefer looking customers with two-year service agreements offering them subsidized and locked phones.

With the earlier idea of selling two-three connections to same customer, Neeraj Choubey said that Dell was in negotiation with AT&T to get bundled 3G on the new and first table from Dell, the Mini 5, and also on all other tablet phones being made in the Dell house.

There has been exclusivity contract by AT&T in the United States for the iPhones. However, Randall Stephenon did not disclosed as of now the length of this exclusivity deal with the Apple’s. Though he did not answer directly but he said that according to him the iPhone as “an important part” of the carrier’s phone offerings “for quite some period of time”.

Stephension, when asked about bandwidth demands, replied that in the iPhone-heavy areas such as New York City and San Francisco the network is improving to accommodate high smartphone data usage.

General Manager of Dell’s tablets division Neeraj Choubey confirmed recently to Laptop Mag that the company is in negotiation with carrier AT&T to make the Mini 5 device reach to the end consumers.

Choubey said to the magazine that one can hold this Android-based handset on their head or even attach Bluetooth headsets to make or receive calls. He adds further that the device will have a front-facing camera in it so that it eases the video calls.

Till now AT&T has not officially announced a partnership with Dell so it is tough to evaluate whether the carrier will require a voice plan also with the data service. Usually it is seen that AT&T has gone for both with all its smartphones.

Right now it seems that AT&T will go with a data-only tablet plan because many people may find this 5-inch Mini 5 tablet computer too bulky for a phone. Moreover, let us also refer the case of Apple’s iPod which is going to be offered only data service.

Speaking truth, the Dell’s Mini 5 is actually having an awkward size. It will never accommodate the pants pocket and this is creating some sort of skepticism.

Analyst Van Baker gives the right comment while talking to the media. He said the Mini Five will be sitting uncomfortably between large-screen tablets like iPad and smartphones.

This does not mean that Mini 5 will not be having its own market. It has some really positive features and one of the main features is one can make VoIP calls from this device. Choubey adds that the device may appeal to “this quintessential soccer mom” by consolidating the functions of a navigation device, a Flip camera and a cell phone into one product.

More to this, Dell will be benefiting from the Android Market and also with its smooth operation. Whatever it is, if Dell could shrink the device little more, many more users would be very interested.

Michael Dell showed the Mini Five running Android 1.6, keeping in consideration the success of Android 2.0 and 2.1 in recent days. One thing we can assume that either before of its launch or just after, upgradation may take place. Apart from 3G, the device will also be having WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Replying to how much consumer needs to shed for Mini 5, Michael Dell declined to answer and only said to the media that it would “be out in a couple months.” It may be possible that Dell is still negotiating with AT&T so that the phone is offered at subsidized price to users.

Let us rewind back what AT&T said earlier. The company said it has plans to take brave leap in the world of Android phones. AT&T will be releasing this year five Android phones and it is believed that Dell Mini Five is one of those.

Thursday’s comprehensive interview of Neeraj Choubey, general manager of tablets in Dell’s Communications Solutions Group, revealed that they are working with carrier AT&T in bringing the phone to people. Choubey also mentioned that Android Market will be accessible with this handset as it is with more conventional Android-powered smartphone.

It was also revealed from Choubey’s interview that Dell is working on a service to provide on Mini 5 that customers will buy apps only once and they will be able to access the apps on multiple devices of Dell. Isn’t it something great and which will surely attract spontaneous buyers of the handset. Give your comments.