Would you buy a Dell smartphone?

Wired's Priya Ganapati has indicated that PC behemoth Dell may be readying its own smartphone to arrive as early as next month. Some analysts posit that Dell could make an announcement at 3GSM or the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in mid-February of this year. One analyst from Kaufman Bros. indicated that the launch "is closer to reality than before" and that it's "highly likely" that the company will enter the phone industry.

Dell has been studying the cellphone market and talking with component suppliers and manufacturers for nearly two years, the analyst said.

With RIM and HTC injecting several new models into the market and Palm re-entering the fray with its webOS-powered Pre, it's a tough market in which to make a splash.

But smartphones are one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics devices, and as was indicated at CES, smartphones could be 50% of the mobile market in 2009. In 2008, smartphones netted 14 percent of the market, with about 258 million devices sold last year.

Dell's clearly been paying attention to new trends. In the last few months, they've released three Netbook models, and their Adamo notebook, revealed momentarily at CES this year, is almost on the market.

In 2007, Dell hired Ron Garriques, a former Motorola executive known as the force behind the RAZR phone, as president of its consumer business. It's been two years, so perhaps Garriques has something up his sleeve?

Ganapati writes that Dell is likely to choose not Google Android but Windows Mobile as its platform of choice, owing to their strong relationship in the PC sector. Dell's also been putting more resources in its design as that aspect has become more important to consumers.

Would you buy a Dell smartphone?