Dell and Baidu look to develop tablet and mobile devices jointly

Dell and China’s top search engine Baidu plan to jointly develop tablet computers and mobile phones, targeting the Chinese market dominated by Apple and Lenovo.

China is one of the fastest growing markets for tablets and is home to more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers, but analysts were sceptical that the partnership would unseat Apple as the dominant force in the market.

Dell declined to give a timeline for the launch of the devices, but local media reported that it may be as early as November.

Baidu launched a new mobile application platform early in September and offered a glimpse of its upcoming mobile operating system, which it hopes will serve a growing number of users accessing the Internet from smartphones and tablet computers.

The company said it already had partnerships with Dell and other device makers and declined to comment on the new tie-up. Dell said the partnership with Baidu involved the company’s new mobile platform.

Baidu has built on its dominance of China’s search market significantly since Google’s high-profile exit last year citing hacking and censorship concerns.

Baidu’s Nasdaq-listed shares are up nearly 50 per cent so far this year, giving it a market value of around U$50 billion.