Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) founder and current CEO Michael Dell said this week at the Citigroup technology conference in New York that his company may make a wireless smartphone. Sigh. This rhetoric is getting ridiculous. I am sure Dell hired former Motorola wireless division chieftain Ron Garriques to man the company's technical support lines. Note to Michael Dell: just announce a friggin' phone already and get over it.

In recent years (until about the end of 2007), Dell's formulaic "me too" stance in non-PC electronics like flat-screen televisions, MP3 players and others have fallen flat on their respective faces. When the company saw the market for PDAs dissolving into nothing, it stopped making its Axim line of Windows Mobile PDAs -- which were regarded by some as some of the nicer ones on the market. Yet, it has not replaced that PDA line with a smartphone that is very powerful but features voice calling plus 3G wireless data. In other words, it's way behind the market here. Ask Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) about its iPhone sales for more elaboration on this.

Dell himself stated at the Citigroup conference, "I think you will see us with small screen devices ... you'll see us with smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the devices you are referring to. Not in the near-term." What does that mean? Sometime in 2010 we'll see Dell with another me-too smartphone that's cookie-cutter and years behind the competition? If that's the plan, Dell's new smartphone had better be game-changing like Apple's iPhone was in 2007. If not, Dell's history of making commodity products will ring up another boring (but sellable and profitable) semi-winner.

As Doug reported on earlier, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is searching feverishly for a possible CEO to lead the company that will be created when it spins off its cellphone division. The only problem is that the candidates aren't just lining up for this one. Respected turnaround executive Todd Bradly said yesterday he would not be leaving his post as Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) for the top job at Motorola. And this is from a guy who has made a habit of taking the reigns of troubled companies and turning them around very successfully.

It's hard to completely understand why Motorola's cellphone division went from shining start just a few years ago to a complete and total mess. Former CEO Ed Zander blames former cellphone division head Ron Garriques, who bolted for Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) in January 2007 just as Motorola's long slide down to insignificance and missed profits was just beginning to take hold. Did Garriques time his exit almost perfectly? It sure seems that way, but the mess that he left behind was either his own doing or was partly the fault (if not completely) of Zander, who ended up resigning under pressure as a result.

It's hard to see how Motorola can completely turn around its cellphone business, even if that part is indeed spun off into a separate company. It's a textbook story of how, within just a few years, a company can go from best to worst as it misfired on about every possible front. It's been in a rut before, such as the 1990s when it missed the transition to digital cellphones and gave up tons of marketshare to rival Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). This will be a lot harder for someone to fix, although it's a massive and unique opportunity. If Bradley won't bite, though, who will?

With the hotter-than-hot consumer electronics company Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)joining forces with the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S., is the picture going to be all roses? Most likely, it will. As Georges wrote on a day ago, Apple products are about to explode inside Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) stores across the U.S., as the iPod maker will be opening miniature versions of its successful Apple stores inside the big box retailer. IN 1998, Best Buy abandoned Apple based on low demand and low profits. But, times have changed drastically since then.

Apple is a hot commodity right now, as its consumer electronics products and even its Mac PCs and laptops being the envy of all the markets where they compete. With the style and panache Apple products have right now, it's easy to see that many retailers want to join up with the Cupertino, California company.

Some think that Apple's brand will be diluted be entering into too many mass merchants, but the company knows this. A "mini Apple store" inside a mass merchant that has foot traffic numbers any retailer would crave and most likely cannot go wrong.

Is this bad news for Dell(NASDAQ:DELL)? Sure it is. Best Buy's largest PC movers are Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:HPQ) and Gateway (NYSE:GTW) systems. Add Apple into that mix and Dell becomes even more irrelevant in the age where customers are bored buying systems online and want to have the "touch and feel" experience of retail along with excellent design. Newer HP systems have been designed very well and there's no question about Apple's styling. What will Ron Garriques do to combat that? We're waiting.

As Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) restocks its executive roster this past February with noted industry veterans like Solectron's Mike Cannon and Motorola's Ron Garriques, where is the PC maker headed for the next 12 to 18 months? Note that I said "PC maker" here: although Dell has made more than PCs in the past, its forays into flat-panel TVs, MP3 players and other consumer electronics have largely fallen flat on their respective faces.

Dell simply cannot (and will not) just push its direct-buy model into the consumer electronics industry, where customers expect and demand to touch and feel those new toys before buying. As it turns out, consumers want to do this with PCs as well, which is a reason Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) leapfrogged Dell last year to overtake it in the PC sales business.

When dissecting why Dell would hire a wireless industry giant away from popular (but struggling) cellphone maker Motorola, there were several opinions on that one. Ron Garriques is widely credited with rescuing the marketing and even design efforts of Motorola a few years back as the Motorola RAZR took the cellphone industry by storm (though not so much now). With Garriques heading up the consumer side of Dell's products and sales teams, will he also be heading up the possible development of a Dell-branded wireless handset?

With the cellphone industry so intensely competitive (forget the PC industry), would Dell even want to enter the market? If it did, the company would probably follow HP and enter the Windows Mobile Smartphone market instead of the low-margin and pressure filled standard handset market, in which it couldn't ever hope to make gains for the near future (or ever). Dell's Axim line of PDAs must be floundering (as are all non-phone PDAs right now), so perhaps Dell wants to enter the Smartphone market. Or is Garriques simply going to try and invigorate Dell's consumer products in terms of design and "freshness" like he did at Motorola? Over the course of 2007, we will all see -- that much is certain.

With all the hubbub about Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ:DELL) poor performance over the recent calendar year, will the world's second-largest PC manufacturer turn in disappointing performance tomorrow when it releases quarterly results? Competitor Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) turned in what I consider to be absolutely solid results just last week, and during the middle of 2006 it over took Dell as the world's largest PC maker. HP also has its hands in many other profitable areas where Dell does no operate (printer/imaging and services.)

With that said, the consensus on the Street for Dell's latest quarterly performance is pegged at $0.31 EPS, as some analysts have taken higher estimates down in the face of some signs from the computer maker recently.

Yes, former Dell CEO Kevin Rollins was ousted just about a month ago and company founder Michael Dell has returned as CEO. Not only that, but Dell has gone on a hiring rampage and has hired some well-known executives from outside the industry (like Solectron's Mike Cannon and Motorola's Ron Garriques) to help bring fresh thinking into the company as well as help turn around this laggard ship of sort.

The big question I have here -- which I will delve into in another post -- is if Dell will re-examine its current business model and actually try to re-enter the retail store market for goose PC sales. Dell was in retail way back in the early 90s in an experiment, but left that sector and had not been back. Will it come back to retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA? Stay tuned for that one.

Until then, be sure and stay tuned to BloggingStock's Dell blog tomorrow at 5 p.m. EST for the liveblog of Dell's Q4 financial results. Maybe the company will drop a hint or two about its future plans. Will Dell meet, beat or fall short of analyst expectations tomorrow? Vote now.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know what you're expecting.