Dell Preparing a Google Android-based Netbook?

PC maker Dell may be on the verge of releasing a netbook based on Google’s Android operating system.

Mobile software developer Bsquare issued a press release on Wednesday that said it would port Adobe Flash Lite to Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 netbook to leverage “Bsquare’s Android competency to improve the Adobe Flash Lite experience on Dell’s Mini Inspiron 910.”

Except for the fact that Dell hasn’t announced any netbooks based on Google’s Android operating system.

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Bsquare has since pulled the announcement, saying it was issued erroneously. But the question remains, why would Bsquare prepare such a release if Dell wasn’t working on an Android-based netbook?

While a few PC makers, including HP and Asus, have said they are looking at or working on Android-based notebooks, nobody has released one yet. But the technology has the potential to threaten a few very well established industry players, including Microsoft and Intel.

That’s because Android-based netbooks would be using Android instead of a Microsoft operating system – either Windows XP or Windows 7. Windows XP is currently the most widely used netbook operating system. Plus, Android can run on processors designed by ARM rather than on Intel’s Atom processor.

But for now, Dell isn’t talking publicly about any netbooks based on Android.