Dell, Microsoft Now Selling Windows Phone 7-Powered Venue Pro

In the U.S., the Dell Venue Pro is only available from Dell and from Microsoft's retail and online stores, and it only runs on T-Mobile's network. Without a contract, the 8-GB Venue Pro is priced at $450 and the 16-GB Venue Pro is $500. Curiously, it can't be purchased through T-Mobile.

With a two-year contract from T-Mobile, Dell's exclusive Venue Pro partner in the U.S., those prices drop to $100 and $150 for new activations and $200 and $250 for upgrades. T-Mobile also requires a data plan for the Venue Pro that runs from $10 to $30 per month depending on usage.

The Dell Venue Pro is the most rugged of the Windows Phone 7 devices currently on the market, with a 4.1 inch WVGA AMOLED Gorilla Glass display and a slide-out portrait QWERTY keyboard. A 1-GHz Snapdragon CPU, 720p HD video and 5-megapixel camera make the Venue Pro a monster when it comes to content creation.

Dell showed off the Venue Pro at the Windows Phone 7 launch in October but didn't tip its hand on availability and pricing. The biggest Venue Pro news thus far has been that Dell plans to move its 25,000 employees from Blackberry devices to Venue Pros. While clearly a publicity stunt, it's also an indication of the potential threat RIM faces from Windows Phone 7's entry to the mobile market.

Dell is hoping the Venue Pro can give a shot in the arm to its mobile business, which is under the microscope due in large part to the market's lukewarm reaction to the Android-powered Aero smartphone and Streak tablet/smartphone.

Dell is in the midst of a major mobile business re-organization. The company shut down its communications solution group last month and parted ways with Ron Garriques, the executive who'd overseen the unit since 2007. Dell's rationale is that mobile devices aren't just a consumer play anymore, and it plans to work mobility into all of its businesses, from consumer and SMB to enterprise and public sector.