AT&T Finally Welcomes Android to the Family

AT&T may be immune to swallowing its own poison.

The exclusive carrier of the iPhone is attempting to ween itself off of Steve Job's creation with the very thing that has publicly exposed AT&T's weakness: Google's Android.

For months Verizon has used the flagship Android phone to take aim at AT&T and Apple's iPhone. Now just a day after Google introduced a new Android challenger to Verizon's Droid -- the Nexus One -- Dell announced it will offer its Android-based Mini 3 exclusively exclusivly on AT&T's network in the United States.

AT&T's first foray into the Android world could be a shrewd move. It is a direct response to T-Mobile's 3G monopoly over the Nexus One (Verizon will carry the phone later in the Spring and it currently does not work with AT&T's 3G network) and it adds a potentially attractive smartphone to its line up that isn't named iPhone or Blackberry.

The problem is that specific details of the phone's specs are scarce and early reviews suggest it may not be the sexiest smartphone out there. It is also not meant to compete with the likes of Verizon's Droid.

Maybe Dell will dress the phone up to make AT&T look better. We will find out soon enough. The Mini 3 is due out in the first quarter of this year.

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