Can Dell establish a position in smartphones competing with Apple, RIM, Palm, and others? A report by the Wall Street Journal and subsequent coverage in the New York Times and elsewhere indicate that Dell may be getting ready to enter the smartphone market. Dell has built a team in Chicago (Moto territory) that has been working on a top-secret smartphone project for the last year. Sources indicate that Dell has built prototypes using both Google’s Android open source platform and Windows Mobile. This will be Dell’s first foray into smartphones, following less than spectacular success in PDAs and MP3 players.Dell is rumored to announce its smartphone lineup at the upcoming GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If and when Dell enters the smartphone market, it could bring an interesting advantage in the form of its 2007 acquisition of Zing Systems for music streaming synchronization across devices.Given the cooling of Dell’s core PC and server business, it’s no doubt feeling the pressure to tap into some faster-growing markets. But even that may be easier said than done with formidable competition from Apple, RIM, and the forthcoming Palm Pre in the smartphone market. Open Source