COMPUTER-MAKER Dell and China’s top search engine Baidu plan to jointly develop tablet computers and mobile phones, targeting the Chinese market dominated by Apple and Lenovo.
China is one of the fastest growing markets for tablets and is home to more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers, but analysts were sceptical that the partnership would unseat Apple as the dominant force in the market.
“I suspect this is just Dell, who has a lot of problems on the mobile and tablet front, grasping at straws to get any kind of publicity that it can to make its product more attractive,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director of technology consultancy RedTech Advisors. “Ultimately in China, I still think it is Apple’s game, still for the iPad and iPhone.”
Dell declined to give a timeline for the launch of the devices. But local media reported yesterday that it may be as early as November and offered a glimpse of Baidu’s mobile operating system, which it hopes will serve a growing number of users accessing the internet from smartphones and tablet computers.
The company said it already had partnerships with Dell and other device-makers and declined to comment on the new tie-up. Dell said the partnership with Baidu involved the company’s new mobile platform.
Baidu has built on its dominance of China’s search market significantly since Google’s high-profile exit last year citing hacking and censorship concerns.
Baidu’s Nasdaq-listed shares are up nearly 50 per cent so far this year, giving it a market value of about $50 billion (€36 billion). – (Reuters)
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