Dell is going to create a handheld mobile gadgets proposed specially for Internet access, following the footsteps of rival Apple, according to news reports published in the Wall Street Journal.

Dell engineers are developing a prototype device similar to Apple's iPod touch larger, but the lack of the ability of cells, according to news reports quoted anonymous sources. Dell will begin selling Internet access later this year, although the plan may be canceled.

Prototype devices were used by the ARM chip design and operation of the robot based on the Linux operating system, news reports said. The majority of handheld devices, including smart phones, the use of the chip design arm.

Dell declined to comment on the equipment, saying the agreement would not comment on rumors and speculation. If the rumors are true, it will be the first time Dell entered the category of devices known as Mobile Internet Devices (MID's), in which the properties of a combination of smart phones and netbooks in the pocket-sized machine. However, MID is very difficult to find the already widely used, users complain about the small screen and poor battery life.

Dell may be the process of developing a dementia, but it may not be able to see the light of day, said Jack Gold, principal analyst, scholar Gold Council. Dell relies on sales, and entered an experimental product like the MID will be a risky move, he said.

"Mid-levels, taking into account the different space than the traditional PC installed base. Netbooks will be more close to their sales," said Kim. MID sales will be similar to the smart phone sales, so Dell will need a large number of partnerships with wireless operators who provide Internet access services such as WiMAX, Gold said. It also requires strong partnerships with companies such as Intel, which is to promote WiMAX, in order to subsidize the hardware.

Dell's limited presence of smart phones will affect the sale of its attempt to MID, and it may be better than other companies resell the equipment to make their own.
"There are so many things in the market. Even if HP can not sell its smart phones," said Kim.

This is not the first time around the rumors of Dell work on mobile devices. Dell has been rumored to see smart phones, and speculation reached a head when the rumor earlier this year, Dell shows that the robot-based smart phones in the GSM Association, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. However, the phone has never materialized.

Important thing is that Dell do their research around the MID, with the wireless space is not a cell phone is no longer just that, Jeff Root, wireless industry analyst. WiMAX and other wireless options and the growing popularity of hardware manufacturers such as Dell and Apple users who want to expand the new wireless devices to provide a new form factors, he said.

Dell last year, well-known pocket-sized device is the Axim Pocket PC, this is in 2007, the abolition of the poor sales. Dell's major competitors, including Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Apple, have been in the mobile computing and intelligent mobile phones and handheld computers.