PC makers Dell and Acer

PC makers Dell and Acer to launch mobile phones at MWC ‘09?
It’s a well-known fact that smartphones are getting, well, smarter. If you want proof, just take a look at something like the HTC Touch HD, or the upcoming Nokia N97. Ludicrously powerful, packed with bags of features, and very possibly smarter than the person using them (in a Skynet kinda way), those two mobile phones walk the line between phones and computers.

Well, the line may well be set to blur even further, because several sites round about the net are reporting that two of the biggest names in the world of PCs are going to be barging into the world of mobile phones.

First up is Taiwanese manufacturer Acer, who have confirmed in their own marketing that they have indeed got a smartphone on the way, to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), on February 16th. However, they’re keeping mum about what it’ll be like, other than it’ll be running on Windows Mobile, which makes sense because they’ve recently bought little-known phone maker E-Ten, who specialised in, you guessed it, Windows Mobile phones (under the Glofiish brand). A lot of people were hoping for Android, but hey, I’m happy with WM, since I’ve now officially fallen in love with it, apart from when it does stupid things like locking up for NO REASON. But hey, no relationship’s perfect, right?

Meanwhile, Dell are also rumour to be working on a top-end smartphone, although in their case, it’s not guaranteed they’ll actually have anything to show us at the Mobile World Congress. However, the rumour’s pretty interesting, here, because they’ve been working on two prototypes, apparently, according to Gizmodo. One of ‘em is apparently a bit like the Palm Pre, but powered by Windows Mobile, whilst the other is said to be a touchscreen only device, not un-akin to the iPhone, running on Android.

Frankly, either of those sound exciting!

Annnnnnd finally, there’s a rumour that further cements the idea of phones and computers converging, as there’s talk of phone giant Nokia reimagining the QWERTY style they used on the E90, but putting into the body of a device halfway between a top-end smartphone and a netbook PC. Imagine a cross between the Nokia N97 and the Asus EeePC.

Now that is rather intriguing. We shall just have to wait and see what MWC brings us this year