Dell Out To Buy Palm?

Dell has always been a well-known hardware provider in the PC market, but their first attempt in the smartphone market fell flat in its face. They recently came out with two smartphone prototypes that were unanimously rejected by carriers for being too dull. But Dell wasn't about to give up – they went straight back to the drawing board, and recently came out with an announcement of an acquisition in the near future.

This got me thinking. Dell really has its hands full with its entry into the smaller-screen market, up against powerhouses like Blackberry, Apple, and Nokia. If Dell has an acquisition in the works, everyone is pretty much sure it won't be any one of those three.

Let's take a look at America's most preferred vendors among smartphone users these days, according to a study conducted by Strategy Analytics this month:

• Blackberry – 80%

• Apple – 77%

• Nokia – 41%

• Motorola – 37%

• Palm – 35%

• Samsung – 34%

• Dell – 19%

It's pretty clear that Dell has a lot of ground to cover, being at the far bottom of the pile. If it's going to make an acquisition, it's probably going to be either Motorola, Palm, or Samsung. My guess? It's gonna be Palm.

I'm thinking a Dell-Palm merger is a more potent combination than a Dell-Motorola or Dell-Samsung one in breaking into the top three smartphone vendors bracket. Palm is currently touting its “iPhone killer,” the Palm Pre, which will be out in a few months, which will definitely help Dell's case. I have my doubts that it'll match up to the iPhone or any of the Blackberries, but it does stand a good chance of knocking Nokia out of the top three.

Of course, the Pre also makes things harder for Dell to acquire Palm. It's probably Palm's biggest bargaining chip yet, and it's going to make things a bit more expensive if Dell wants to buy Palm over the next few months. Let's just wait and see.