Rumors about a Dell Smartphone have been swirling around for a while. A couple of weeks ago a photo of what is supposedly a Dell Android smartphone appeared.
Now the WSJ chimes in saying that their sources talk about Dell working on an Android powered pocket internet device. So called Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) would not offer voice service.
MIDs are still a tricky category. The new Viliv Windows XP MIDs have been selling well despite their high price. MIDs compete though very much with smartphones like the iPhone, Palm Pre and WinMo devices.

Dell now has a good history of selling open source OS equipped computers. So it lies near for Dell to play around with Android. I am also pretty sure though that Microsoft is trying to talk sense into them and push Windows 7 or WinMo on whatever device Dell is brewing.

In any case I could only imagine MIDs being broadly successful if they become really cheap and sell under $100 without any subsidies.