Just when we thought that Dell’s decision to release its Streak tablet running Android 1.6 was one of the strangest decisions we had seen, the company has gone and surprised us still more. We have just heard that Dell has released the Aero, its first smartphone running Android. It has some very neat specs, a 624 Mhz processor (not too bad really), a 3.5 inch touchscreen, a 5.0-megapixel camera and the usual connectivity options (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.) as well as the claim to being “the lightest Android smartphone ever,” but what has left us in a near state of shock is that Dell’s first real attempt at the smartphone market features an outdated OS – the Aero runs Android 1.5, which is even older than the 1.6 found on the Streak. We have no idea what rationale Dell has for this move, but it does seem strange coming from a company that has been a major player in the tech industry for years. It is almost akin to releasing a new computer running on Windows 98!
At this moment, almost all manufacturers are looking at releasing devices running Android 2.1 at the very least and patching up existing ones to 2.1 and 2.2. What on earth Dell hopes to achieve by releasing a phone running Android 1.5 in this market is beyond our understanding. Incidentally, the Aero is available for $99 on a two year contract from At&T. We are still scratching our heads about the Android version, to be honest.
