Dell has stopped selling Android devices as it moves to Windows 2-in-1 devices.
It has said that it is giving up on its Venue line of Android tablets, and will no longer offer the Android-based Wyse Cloud Connect, a thumb-size computer that can turn a display into a PC.
Dell has long said that the slate tablet market is over-saturated and declining. They appear to be being replaced by 2-in-1s which provide a more spiritual blend of PC capabilities with tablet mobility.
Dell won’t be offering OS upgrades to Android-based Venue tablets already being used by customers.
Customers who own Android-based Venue products, Dell will continue to support currently active warranty and service contracts until they expire, but will not be pushing out future OS upgrades.
Dell now mostly has laptops and 2-in-1s with Windows on its books with a smattering of Chromebooks, which run Chrome OS. These can run Android apps through access to the Google Play Store but not Android.
If you don’t want Windows, Dell also sells XPS and Precision laptops with Ubuntu to developers, and thin clients with Linux, Windows Embedded and Wyse’s ThinOS operating systems.
Venue is a brand often placed on the chopping block by Dell. It killed off Venue smartphones in 2012, but reintroduced the brand through the tablets. You can find Venue tablets with Windows but the product has not been upgraded in a while.
HP is also doing something similar. It now offers just a handful of Android tablets, mainly for businesses. Lenovo is offering fewer Android tablets and has expanded its Windows-based, 2-in-1 lineup. So much for Steve Job’s “game changing” technology which was going to change the world.
