Report: Dell To Make Android Phone For AT&T

A newspaper report says Dell Inc. is working on a "smart" phone for AT&T that runs Google Inc.'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 rumors 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."