Dell to make AT&T Android phone: report

A newspaper report says Dell is working on a "smart" phone for AT&T that runs Google's Android phone operating system.

The touch-screen phone could be ready early next year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Representatives for Dell, AT&T and Google all declined to comment.

Dell hired Ron Garriques, a Motorola cell-phone division executive, to lead its consumer technology group in 2007.

That sparked persistent rumours that the PC maker was readying a smart phone.

In August, Dell showed off what appeared to be a smart phone at a Beijing event hosted by China's biggest cell phone carrier, China Mobile.

The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker said it was a "proof of concept mobile device prototype."