Let’s say you plan a new product for your company. You start hyping up the new product by releasing subtle hints that it exists without, of course, saying that it really does. You get people wondering and guessing what it might have, what it might feature, what it might look like.. etc etc.

Then you get the dreaded news that every product manager hates to hear. No one is interested in your product. Yes.. you’ve got the makings of a problem here.

This appears to be the situation that Dell finds itself in with its not-so-secret new mobile handset. According to a research note presented by Ashok Kumar of Collins Stewart (via News.com), mobile carriers in both the U.S. and in Europe were not impressed with the new product as well as with the upcoming Dell product roadmap.

“The carriers, who see products from all the leading handset vendors have decided to pass on Dell’s handset.”

Yeah.. I’d qualify that as not-so-great news for Dell’s new handset – don’t you think? What’s particularly sad is the fact that Dell does indeed have working relationships with some carriers out there thanks to its netbook product line. Yet despite that, it can’t convince them to carry yet another handset.

Kumar suspects that Dell will sell the handset through non-conventional methods – through retailers only. The problem is – will a consumer be willing to purchase a handset that isn’t subsidized by the mobile carrier? Will Dell respond by drastically undercutting the cost of the handset (perhaps creating a price war of sorts?).

Here’s the plain and simple truth. Do we really need yet another vendor in the mobile handset space?

The field is crowded enough as it is with vendors such as Apple, Research in Motion, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, Palm, Motorola, Apple, and HTC. Dell has a habit of jumping into an established industry and more recently, they’ve been jumping in with stylish/forward looking products. However – will a stylish/forward-looking product sell in the mobile handset space? Especially if the standards bearer for stylish/forward looking handsets is Apple itself? Let’s be real here Dell. Stick to what you’re good at – mass producing PCs at a low price. Let the other guys slug it out in the mobile handset space. It’s just not worth it.

Heck.. make us a better netbook with super long battery life and reasonable performance at a price lower than everyone else too!

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