Rumor roundup: Dell to launch first smartphone in China?

Late last week TechCrunch reported that Dell was working on and was extremely close to releasing a smartphone in China. Now word is leaking from a source in China, 163.com, that the device is expected to launch this week. This would mark Dell's first venture into the smartphone market and it appears as if it would remain only available in China.

The device will supposedly be launching on China Mobile, the nation's largest carrier, under a new "Ophone" brand. Ophone is the way China Mobile plans on branding all devices running Android, and is expected to brand devices from Lenovo and HTC in the same way. All Ophones will be built with China-only 3G support, TD-SCDMA.

The Dell smartphone is rumored to be called the mini3i and one could assume if it follows the naming structure of Dell netbooks, the screen size would be roughly three inches. Not much has leaked in terms of hardware specifics but the device would be a full touchscreen without a physical keyboard. Neither Dell China or China Mobile would confirm rumors of the mini3i, but Dell has said as recently as last month that they are working on a smartphone.