Dell has sold various all-in-one computers for years. These systems were mostly insipid, humdrum computers not fit for anything other than being a family’s portal to Facebook. Even with touchscreens, Dell’s all-in-one systems failed to be serious contenders in the space.

Enter the XPS One 27. Announced today and detailed by Engadget, this all-in-one-system is a clone of the iMac. Even the 2560 x 1440 screen resolution is the same. To Dell’s credit, the XPS One 27 ships with Intel’s latest generation of processors while the Apple iMac is still stuck with the older chips — something Apple will no doubt address in the next revision. But it’s hard to ignore the similarities. Hell, even the computer’s support tower has a large hole for cable management a la iMac.

The XPS One 27 is powered by an Ivy Bridge Core i5 or i7 CPU with either an integrated Intel GPU or a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT640M dedicated graphics card. With prices starting at $1,399, systems can be configured with up to 16GB of memory and with a 1TB, 2TB or 32GB SSD hard drive. The backside houses four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports along with HDMI, VGA, and a gigabit Ethernet connection. There’s a slot-loading Blu-ray drive and an optional TV tuner. In all, the XPS One 27 is a fine all-in-one computer with enough power to justify a spot on even an engineer’s desk — too bad Dell didn’t have the design know-how to make an original casing though.

Dell has seemingly given up. At this point in Dell’s anemic life they are just keeping up with Joneses. There was a time when Dell was one of the trusted consumer brands. The firm has never been a design leader with systems more utilitarian than beautiful, but that formula doesn’t work in today’s marketplace. But over the years Dell has managed to release systems like the Adamo XPS and to a less extent, the Dell Streak, that showed the computer company had a bit of life left in its corporate tubes. The XPS One 27 shows the opposite. Dell might be dead.

Lenovo gets it right time and time again. The Chinese PC company consistently releases computers with new designs in novel form factors. Look at the Lenovo all-in-one lineup: Not a single model looks like an iMac while still offering serious computing power. This design-first strategy seems to be working as Lenovo as profits are soaring — something Dell cannot brag about.

There have long been whispers that Dell is looking to exit the consumer business. That division is leading Dell’s losses anyway. And consumers will not miss Dell if the company turns to simply releasing clones of iconic products.

Dell has just announced the acquisition of cloud client computing company Wyse Technology to expand its desktop virtualization offerings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Wyse portfolio includes thin, zero and cloud PC client solutions with advanced management, desktop virtualization and cloud software supporting desktops, laptops and next generation mobile devices. Wyse independently partners with datacenter, networking and collaboration providers within its global partner ecosystem to help businesses move to a secure cloud – in a private, public, government or, even in a personal cloud.

Wyse, which was founded in 1981, offers a number of products including cloud clients, cloud storage, mobility and virtualization software. Among these products is PocketCloud, which turns smartphones and tablets into virtual desktops by letting you control anything on your PC from a mobile device.

To date, Wyse has shipped more than 20 million units worldwide and has over 200 million people interacting with its products each day. The company has more than 180 patents, both issued and pending, covering its solutions, software and differentiated intellectual property.

The company says the addition of Wyse “will expand Dell’s desktop virtualization capabilities and provide new solutions and services opportunities for the full range of Dell’s enterprise offerings.”

I’d wager that only a few of you will remember that Dell sold their own smartphones, and still fewer of you have ever actually owned one.

It should come as no surprise then that Dell, who entered the smartphone market less than two years ago, has announced that they have ceased sales of their last remaining smartphone lines: the Android-powered Venue and the Venue Pro Windows Phone. With those product lines getting the axe, Dell has (for now) put an end to their struggling smartphone business here in the States.

None of Dell’s smartphones managed to gain critical mass in the U.S. market, thanks in part to hardware and software issues that plagued the likes of the Streak 5 and the Venue Pro. They haven’t given up the smartphone ghost completely though, as they’ll continue to sell their devices outside of the United States. Their focus now, according to PC World, has shifted toward “emerging markets and higher-margin products.”

The smartphone game can be a very tough one to crack — consumers, fans, zealots, and certainly us tech writers, demand continuous improvement from the companies that make our hardware. Make them bigger, thinner, faster, better looking, and do it several times a year. Those are tall orders even for entrenched players like HTC and Motorola, so for a company like Dell whose primary focus remains in PC hardware and software solutions, the odds of building and maintaining a considerable stake in the smartphone market were against them from the beginning.

HP has learned that lesson all too well — after having spent an inordinate sum of money to throw their hat into the smartphone and tablet ring with webOS, they pulled the plug in what seems like record time. It takes more than cash and manpower to produce a hit, and in the end, neither HP nor Dell hit upon that crucial formula.

Right now though, Dell’s future in mobile remains hazy. A Dell spokesperson confirmed that the company has plans to push out new mobile products later this year, though he refused to comment on what exactly those devices are (my money is on a slew of Windows 8 tabs with some funky form factors). It’s very possible that Dell intends to dust themselves off and jump back into the ring, but they’ll need a brand new strategy if they want to start playing with the big boys any time soon.

Dell has been operating IT community AppDeploy since it acquired the platform’s owner Kace Networks in 2010. The site itself has been operating for 13 years, and receives around 450,000 monthly visitors per month says Dell. And Dell hadn’t invested much into the site. Today, the company is completely revamping AppDeploy and relaunching the community as ITNinja, a more social, Q&A-focused product-agnostic resource for front line IT administrators.

AppDeploy.com, which was the brainchild of Bob Kelly, was previously a forum-focused community knowledge base that was updated by IT professionals around how to deploy and automate software applications. While the community will continue to revolve around the sharing of information and answers around critical IT decisions and support, the new site ITNinja is focuses more on engagement, reputation and social interactions.

Despite the fact that visitors to AppDeploy aren’t growing, Dell says that an online survey of IT professionals sponsored by KACE in February 2012 revealed 80 percent of IT professionals engage in online communities with 70 percent of them visiting several times a week. And 95 percent of front-line professionals say they save time and do their job more efficiently by using these same online communities.

ITNinja focuses on software topics such as application deployment techniques, configuration settings, and management solutions. Users will be able to leverage the community to find answers and best practices on a range of these complex issues.

The new platform features a Q&A system (as opposed to a forum-like interface), rich content pages, personalized activity feeds, and a reputation management system to encourage use. Dell has also added a tagging system to support better navigation between topics.

In particular, the activity feed highlights users’ contributions and provides a customized view of all software, topics, contributors and blogs that they follow to keep them up-to-date on the content they care about most. The reputation management system uses gamification elements to reward users with points and prizes for their contributions (past and present). Points determine one’s “belt” level which is attached to their identity on the site.

Dell KACE customers will also be able to access the same information directly through the interface of their KACE Systems Management Appliance Console offering users a quick reference for common system administration tasks.

Computer manufacturer Dell announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement that will allow it to acquire SonicWall, a security vendor specializing in firewalls, network security and data protection. The move will help Dell round out its security solutions portfolio, the company reports, which currently includes Dell’s SecureWorks security services, cloud security solutions, data encryption solutions and Dell KACE vulnerability and patch management.

The acquisition is more than just a “beefing up” of Dell’s security line up, though – it’s representative of a shift in Dell’s overall strategy as a technology firm.

The move comes shortly after last month’s announcement regarding the formation of a new Software Group within the company, designed to enhance Dell’s solutions capabilities. Dell hired John Swainson to serve as President of the Group. Swainson, whose background includes over 26 years at IBM, and 4 years as the CEO of CA, Inc., took the position on March 5th – only a week ago. And boy, did he move fast.

Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, SonicWall is no small potatoes. In 2010, it was bought for around $717 million led by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC.

Founded in 1991, SonicWall got its start selling Ethernet cards, hubs and other networking equipment. It later shifted into firewalls and VPN appliances for the SMB market and went public on NASDAQ back in 1999. Today, SonicWall has 300,000 customers in 50 countries, 950 employees and a channel program with 15,000 retailers, which Dell plans to integrate into its own PartnerDirect program. When the deal closes in Dell’s Q2 2013 (early August), resellers from both Dell and SonicWall will be about to sell the enhanced security line up.

SonicWall also has over 130 patent apps, with 64 issued to date, which Dell rightly states as another reason why the acquisition has value.

Explains Swainson in a release, “SonicWALL gives Dell access to unique intellectual property resources and technology that position us well in fast growing parts of the software security business.”

Dell also told Wall St. this morning that SonicWall had approximately $260 million in revenue over the last 12 months, and it expects the acquisitive to be accretive to earnings in the second half of its fiscal 2013.

The acquisition, beyond being an attempt to beef up Dell’s security portfolio, is also indicative of a bigger shift for the computer maker – a move to software and services boosted by acquisitions, with a special focus on business customers. The change is reflective of an overall shift in computing, and especially in personal computing, which is a decreasing part of PC manufacturers’ business, and Dell’s in particular. In Dell’s last earnings call, the company noted that in its consumer business, revenue was down 8% year-over-year and client growth was down 6% in the same time frame.

Companies that once made their bread-and-butter putting PC’s in every home – Dell, HP, and IBM, for example – are now moving towards high-margin software and services to make up for the fact that consumers are now using mobile devices and Apple computers in increasing numbers.

Barring a change of heart or a wild, consumer-driven financial upturn, it looks as if Dell is out of the consumer PC business and is turning its Sauron-like eye towards the enterprise – the one place where people upgrade their PCs at least once a year. According to PCPro, Dell will is “dramatically changing” their entire business with a focus away from “shiny boxes” and more focus on barebones server and fleet hardware.

To be fair, the statement could portend far less than we should expect. Dell has been among the walking dead in PC hardware for most of this decade, producing little of interest (the Adamo was their big consumer play and presumably Alienware will remain a consumer-facing company) but there’s still money to be made in selling commodity hardware for a few percentage points over cost. I doubt the outcry will be as vociferous as it was when HP threatened to pull its consumer business, mostly because Dell has no products of any interest to the enthusiast. The anger at HP was more about their destruction of Palm rather than the possibility that we wouldn’t be able to by a handsome, staid PC in a black/grey case.

As MG points out, the only company to truly pull off this move was IBM. They sold their consumer hardware wholesale to a partner who could do their brand justice and they are thriving under the radar, producing interesting research and machines like Watson, the Jeopardy playing super-computer. I doubt Dell could build a super computer, but they can put together a mean RAID array.

We haven’t heard back from Dell yet about what this decision means to the company, but rather than assume all Dell consumer hardware is going away I suspect we’ll see more focus on enterprise desktops and laptops and less of an emphasis on the low-margin, low-cost netbook, entry-level PC, and tablet/convertible lines. This also means a move away from brick and mortar sales, a place where no one is making money. Maybe this really is the post-PC era?

The Alienware line just got a little brother, its Mac Mini if you will. The X51 is the gaming company’s smallest form factor desktop to date. But, since it’s an Alienware, it still packs plenty of gaming horsepower and customizable options.

Prices start out at $699 for the Core i3/Nvidia GT 545 but prices can quickly rise once different options are selected. For $1149 (sans a monitor) gamers can buy a system powered by a Core i7, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 550. A 1TB hard drive, HDMI 1.4, WiFi, USB 3.0, a slot-loading DVD burner and digital 7.1 are standard options while a Blu-ray drive is available for a little more.

The X51 signals an interesting departure from the standard Alienware. The Dell brand has long unabashedly sold massive gaming beasts. The bigger the better. But the X51 shows that gamers are looking to smaller form factors. The Mini-ITX system isn’t as small as a Mac Mini, but is rather the size of a traditional desktop. This new system can be oriented vertically or sit on its side allowing it to go on a desk or fit in an entertainment system — that is, of course, if you want a glowing desktop under your HDTV.

Look for the X51 to start shipping next week.

Once upon a time netbooks ruled the land. But with the rise of tablets and miniaturization of traditional x86 CPUs, the mini notebooks are quietly dying. The latest victim is the Dell Mini. Liliputing discovered by way of MyDellMini.com that the products are no longer listed on Dell.com. They’re dead, my friends, and it seems ultrabooks and similar products are to blame.

Dell is reportedly shifting focus away from the inexpensive notebooks. A company spokesperson confirmed with The Verge that the product line is indeed finished and Dell doesn’t have plans to release products on future Intel platforms. Instead, Dell will focus on “thin and powerful” notebooks, a not so subtle nod towards ultrabooks even though that description can fit a few of the company’s current notebook lines.

Both Intel and AMD are focusing heavily on CPU platforms that allow for ultrathin notebooks. Some will be as thin as the MacBook Air, the ultrabooks, but still others will be relatively thin while not fitting within the traditional definition of an ultrabook.

But with Dell’s inexpensive Mini line gone, it leaves a curious space open at the low-end of Dell’s product line. Other company’s like Acer previously stated that it was cutting a drastic amount of product lines in an effort to tighten up profit margins and the like. Either Dell is looking to do the same, or, and this is completely reasonable, the company is a prepping a product such as a tablet able to live comfortably in the Mini’s previous $300 – $400 price point. CES is less than a month away. Dell might have thrown away the Mini to clear room in the fridge for a more tasty treat.

Twitter unveiled a major redesign today which will be rolling out slowly. We’ve covered some of the main aspects already such as the new timeline and discover features, as well as how Twitter is trying to become more mainstreamand accessible.

One major change for brands, however, is new brand pages. Not everyone can see what these look like yet, so I’ve pasted some screenshots here from @AmericanExpress, @generalelectric, @JetBlue, and @@McDonalds. The two big changes are a new banner just below the profile information that stretches across the page and the ability to pin a tweet at the top of each brand’s stream. This will give brands a more distinctive presence on Twitter, and should roll out more widely in the first quarter of 2012.

The pinned tweet is particularly effective for tweets with images or video. With the new design, videos and images can be seen inline within your stream (just click “Open” on the top right for tweets with images or videos). On brand pages, these video or photo tweets can be set to be open, adding another visually engaging element to the page.

Twitter is launching the new brand pages with 21 partners. If you have the enhanced version of Twitter enabled, you can see them here: @AmericanExpress, @BestBuy, @bing, @chevrolet, @CocaCola, @Dell, @DisneyPixar, @generalelectric, @Heineken, @HP, @intel, @JetBlue, @Kia, @McDonalds, @nikebasketball, @NYSE_Euronext, @GhostProtocol, @pepsi, @Staples, @subwayfreshbuzz, and @VerizonWireless.

You can also read about the changes on Twitter’s advertising blog.

Nearly one year ago at CES 2011, Dell introduced the Streak 7 Android tablet. The 7-inch tab was an oversized brother to the older Streak 5 tabletphone. Much like the Streak 5, the Streak 7 featured a mobile radio, making it a versatile tablet. Plus, costing only $200 on-contract at T-Mobile, the Streak 7 was actually affordable. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Dell just killed its last Android tablet dead.

The Dell Streak tablets always felt like a “me too” product. Dell never threw its weight behind the devices. They simply tossed them out into the market and let mother nature work. The EVO 4G completely overshadowed the Streak 5 back in the summer of 2010, and despite the Streak 7′s attractive price and feature set, it’s hard for consumers to buy something they didn’t know exist. The company quietly discontinued the original Streak 5 over the summer. Then, just yesterday, Dell halted online sales of the Streak 7 even though it’s still available in select markets.

Dell of late is slow to react to trends. The company’s Windows Phone 7 offering has received the same lack of attention as the Android tablets. The Dell Venue Pro was the very last WinPhone 7 on the market to receive the much-praised Mango system update. Dell doesn’t seem to know how to handle the fast moving mobile scene — or maybe it doesn’t care.

The company is reportedly still committed to mobile per a statement they provided to Engadget. That said, recent moves, or rather, lack thereof, seems to say something entirely different.

Dell remains committed to the mobility market and continues to sell products here and in other parts of the world. Streak 7 delivered a unique experience for customers who wanted a larger screen-size yet the freedom of staying connected to their personal and professional content while on the-go. It continues to be available in many markets through retail, distributors and carrier partners such as Optus in Australia. A 10-inch version of the tablet, Streak 10 Pro, is currently offered in China, offering the ultimate digital divide between work and life. The Venue and Venue Pro devices, as well, continue to earn accolades for performance, design and functionality around the world. We also recently launched the Latitude ST, a 10-inch Windows 7-based touch-screen tablet designed for vertical markets such as education, finance and healthcare in November of this year. We remain committed to expanding our reach beyond PCs with a targeted set of open, standards-based mobility solutions and services designed for commercial and mobile professional customers.

Dell has never strayed far from its original mission of building PCs. Dell is a PC company first and everything else seems to be just a hobby. They stick to what they know: boring, yet capible personal computers. Even when the company entered the gaming market by buying Alienware, they have seemingly left the new division alone. Alienware today has the same anti-establishment appeal as the Alienware of old.

However, the company has always dabbled in the latest short-term trends. The Axim line competed with Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs like the iPAQ. The short-lived Adamo XPS demonstrated that the company had competent designers. And then, just recently, the Streak line of Android tablets allowed Dell to compete but only in a limited capacity. That said, Dell has always remained on its main story arc and didn’t let trendy items dictate the company’s path.

If the Streak 7 is indeed Dell’s last Android tablet, this event will be just a blip on Android’s story line. Dell has never been a major player in the field and probably for good reason. Android tablets haven’t managed to break into the mainstream despite major efforts from Samsung, Motorola, LG, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba. Maybe this was Dell’s plan all along: let other companies exert great effort in chipping away a foothold in the iPad mountain. If they were successful, Dell would be ready with its established Streak line, but if not, their small offering could be killed quietly.

CES 2012 is less than a month away. If Dell isn’t done with Android tablets in the short term, the company will likely use the massive trade show to launch its latest and greatest. Dell has never had a huge presence at CES, but they haven’t been shy about introducing hot products in Vegas — that’s where the Streak 7 was announced. Don’t count Dell out entirely here. If anything, the Streak experiment has shown that Dell doesn’t waste much time or money on products without a profitable future.

During a Q&A today at Web 2.0 Summit, I asked Dell CEO Michael Dell if he regretted saying that Apple should shut down the company and its CEO sell the stock back to shareholders 14 years ago when Apple was trading at $17 a share, in light of the fact that the latter company is now trading at $420 a share at a ~$400 billion dollar market cap, among other things.

The question elicited laughter from the audience, but Dell said that he found it a “great opportunity” to clarify what he had said. His response? “My answer was misconstrued.”

Dell said that he initially refused to answer the original question in 1997, and after being asked to answer twice he basically responded “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,” because he couldn’t imagine himself being CEO of any other company.

Dell went on, “The meaning of my answer was that I’m the CEO of Dell, I don’t think about being the CEO of any other company, I’m not a CEO for hire, so if you asked me what I’d do for any other company, it’s not really something I think about.”

Dell then took a somber tone, “I have tremendous respect for Apple. Obviously Steve will be missed and was a friend.” He described meeting Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at a Houston Apple user group when he was 16 years old, where Dell was with his Apple II.

When asked if he would have given the same answer when asked about any other company, like McDonald’s for example, Dell said, “I am Michael Dell founder of Dell [and would ask] ‘Why don’t you give me another question?’.” Fair enough.

“I’m not going to apologize for [Dell] stock going up 16,000%,” since 1997, he ended the talk emphasizing.

RT @fxshaw always amazed by how rude people can be when they ask public questions. Me: TechCrunch doesn't care and never did.—
Sam Whitmore (@samwhitmore) October 18, 2011

What’s that noise about living in a post-PC era? The personal computer market is actually growing per a new preliminary Gartner report. The research company found third quarter PC shipments as a whole are up 3.2% over the same period in 2010, totaling 91.8 million units. This number is slightly less than Gartner’s earlier projections and the Western European market is partly to blame. But save Acer and Dell, computer manufacturers increased shipments from a year ago and Lenovo, thanks to several acquisitions and partnerships, overtook Dell and now trails just HP in the worldwide PC marketshare pie.

Per this report, HP still holds the most worldwide and US marketshare. While Dell was catching up a year ago, the company saw a decrease in shipments while HP managed to ship even more. This comes even as HP previously announced that it was considering spinning-off its PC division.

Lenovo’s marketshare growth is partly attributed to recent deals. The Beijing-based computer manufacturer recently merged with Japan’s NEC and acquired Medion, a growing German consumer electronic company. Plus, Lenovo is aggressively stepping up marketing and releasing products that tend to ride above the industry standard.

Acer had a rough third quarter worldwide where shipments dropped a staggering 23.2% and 25.4% in the US market due to an inventory buildup issue.

Apple is still lagging behind the top five computer manufacturer on the worldwide stage, but it’s growing rapidly in the US where it holds the third largest marketshare. Apple’s third quarter shipments are up 21.5% over Q3 2010, which helped increase its marketshare to 12.9%. HP saw similar growth with a 15.1% shipping increase and now holds 28.9% of the US marketshare while Dell dropped to 21.9% thanks to a shipping decrease of 7.2%.

The US market saw the third straight quarter of year-over-year growth. Gartner notes that inventory buildup wasn’t an issue as industry expectations foresaw weak back-to-school sales. Apple grew the most in the US in part because of the success of MacBook Air.

These numbers are still preliminary. Gartner will soon release the final stats to its PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program.

Dell was never a major player when it came to their Windows Phones selection (which, if memory serves, consisted of one device), but now it seems like they may not be a player at all. Sources have confirmed to WPCentral that Dell has decided to sit out of the Windows Phone race for at least the next year.

The news of Dell’s hiatus doesn’t come as a huge shock, as the company has been keeping suspiciously quiet on the Windows Phone front for months now.

Their saving grace could have been the mysterious “Wrigley” handset, a rumored successor to their ill-fated Venue Pro. Alas, poor Wrigley would never see the light of day, and it looks like Dell’s Mango ambitions may have died with it.

Frankly, it’s a bit of a shame. I’ve always been a sucker for a portrait slider, and the Venue Pro was nothing if not that. In fairness, it was a brick of a phone, and it suffered from more than its fair share of quality control issues. Still, less competition is almost always a bad thing — now there’s one less company to keep the big guys on their toes.

Dell hasn’t said that they would ditch Windows Phone completely, so there’s still hope for an WP8/Apollo device, but that’s an awfully long time for Dell devotees to hold their collective breaths.

And here’s the third phone from Japanese carrier SoftBank‘s fall/winter line-up that deserves a dedicated article: it’s the so-called DELL STREAK PRO 101DL [JP], which the company will start offering to its subscribers in January 2012 (price tbd). And this isn’t an Android tablet but a phone.

And judging by the specs, it’s going to be quite a nice one:

• Android 2.3
• 4.3-inch super AMOLED screen with 540×960 QHD resolution (Gorilla Glass)
• 8MP CMOS camera
• 1.3MP sub camera
• 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8260 CPU
• SyncUp compatible
• Dell Stage 2.0 pre-installed
• Bluetooth 2.1＋EDR
• IEEE802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• GPS
• microSDHC card slot
• W-CDMA, GSM
• size: 65×126×10.3mm, weight: 140g

Here’s how the phone looks like from the back:

Japanese tech news site Keitai Watch reports that there are global sales plans for the DELL STREAK PRO 101DL but that Japan will get the device first.

Hot on the heels of Baidu’s new mobile OS launch, reports are circulating that the Chinese search giant is partnering with Dell to build tablets and mobile phones.

China is a goldmine in terms of potential consumers. With over 900 million mobile subscribers, China is becoming one of the fastest growing tablet markets, as well. As the Google of the Eastern world, Baidu should have no problem marketing hardware under its brand name. And Dell’s business in China seems to have picked up as well, though the name carries far less weight with consumers than Baidu’s.

According to an analyst who spoke with Reuters, Dell may be “grasping at straws” in an attempt to breathe life into its tablet business. The Dell Streak 5 tablet has been discontinued in the States, but a Dell spokesperson said that the company “has a partnership with Baidu [and] the Streak 5 tablet, so the partnership will be in that space.” It’s not clear whether that means we should expect a Chinese version of the Dell Streak 5 or just another similar minitab.

Either way, Dell and Baidu will face some strong competition in China. Lenovo has seen great success in the Chinese market over the past few years, and Apple has an almost terrifyingly strong presence there. We’ve heard of girls giving up their virginity for an iPhone 4 and a Chinese teenager selling his kidney for an iPad 2.

With brand dedication like that it may be more difficult than expected to rip people away from their beloved Apple. And the companies won’t have much time to do so, either. Though neither company gave a solid timeline, a spokesperson said we may see the partnership’s first offering in as early as November.

Self-proclaimed “technology innovation and licensing company” WiLAN, billed as a notorious patent troll by most anyone else (and often, much worse), this morning announced that it has initiated litigation against Apple, Dell, HP, HTC, Kyocera, Alcatel-Lucent, Novatel and Sierra Wireless America.

In its filing, WiLAN claims that these companies are infringing two U.S. patents, namely No. RE37,802 (related to CDMA and HSPA technology) and No. 5,282,222 (related to Wi-Fi and LTE).

In an extraordinary twist, but actually the complete opposite of that, litigation was commenced in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, which is known to favor plaintiffs and for its general expertise in patent-related lawsuits.

The extremely litigious company will once more be represented in this action by Texas-based McKool Smith, which specializes in IP litigation (see: i4i v. Microsoft and Versata v. SAP).

Last year, WiLAN made headlines here on TechCrunch already by suing just about every portable devices vendor over a patent related to Bluetooth technology – defendants included Apple, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, LG, Intel, Texas Instruments, Acer and Motorola.

Last week, the company launched a hostile takeover bid for fellow patent troll MOSAID, stating an intention to make an all-cash offer to acquire all the outstanding common shares of its patent-licensing rival for approximately C$480 million (roughly $491 million).

Ottawa-based WiLAN has about 800 patents, covering mostly wireless tech, while MOSAID has a larger patent portfolio of 2,822 patents and applications covering semiconductor and telecommunications technologies. Just yesterday, MOSAID announced that it has acquired 2,000+ Nokia patents, expanding its portfolio even more.

Guess what will happen when that merger – currently under review – actually happens? Shudder.

Updated: the complaint, embedded below:

Western Europe is a tough place to be for PC manufacturers right now. According to a report from technology research firm Gartner, sales are down nearly across the board, with just a single exception: Apple.

In fairness, even though Apple was the only manufacturer to experience positive growth, the figure aren’t anything to write home about. Apple only picked up half of a percentage point — a very modest gain to say the least — but nearly all of Apple’s competitors ended up in the negative. Acer took the brunt of the damage with a 44.6% drop in units sold, but Asus (-22.9%), Dell (-12.7%), and runner-up HP (-6.1%) didn’t fare much better.

Netbooks reportedly accounted for much of the losses, with tablets eating up much of the demand for mobile computing tools. Asus and Acer’s sharp declines in sales is at least partially being blamed on their over-reliance on netbook performance. Both companies have made inroads into the tablet segment, but this could mark the beginning of a more concerted effort to win back some market space from the iPad.

So, for the second quarter in a row, Apple has taken the crown. Still, while growth is growth, I’m not sure anyone at Cupertino is terrible pleased with their performance: in Q1, they managed a 10% jump in growth. HP is slowly improving, and with their money behind the TouchPad, we may see them rally next quarter.

Asus and Acer, frankly, should be a bit worried. Both have dropped substantially since Q1 last year, and unless they get their game on, they’ve got more red ink in their future. Like I mentioned, I think their tablet efforts are going to be key in coming months. Acer in particular has always been a fan of the low cost PC, and if they start to eschew netbooks (at least for now) in favor of tablets, they may be able to pick up some much needed ground. It looks bad, but some solid steps over the next few months could turn everything around for Asus, Dell, Acer, and HP. All the companies listed here are going to have to tweak their strategies and hustle, because western Europe is beginning to look like the Wild West.

Dell reported mixed earnings this afternoon for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012. Revenue in the quarter was $15.7 billion, up 1 percent over last year. GAAP earnings per share was $0.48, up 71 percent; non-GAAP EPS was $0.54 cents, up 69 percent. The company blew past EPS expectations, Dell missed slightly on revenue. Analysts expected non-GAAP EPS of $0.49 on revenue of $15.75 billion.

Cash flow from operations grew to a record $2.4 billion Non-GAAP net income came in at $1 billion for the quarter, up 60 percent from the same quarter last year. Dell ended the quarter with a record high $16.2 billion in cash and investments and repurchased $1.1 billion in stock in the quarter.

Dell said the growth in its enterprise solutions and services, particularly in serverm storage, data management, security and cloud service, continued to drive the company’s profitability in the fiscal second quarter as operating income rose significantly on a 1 percent revenue increase.

Revenue for Dell’s commercial business was $12.8 billion, up 1 percent from a year ago. Enterprise solutions and services revenue grew 4 percent to $4.6 billion in the quarter and now represents 35 percent of Dell’s commercial revenue. Servers and networking revenue increased 9 percent year over year. Dell Services revenue grew 6 percent to $2 billion.

Growth countries outside of the U.S. and Canada, Western Europe and Japan increased revenue 14 percent over the previous year and now account for 28 percent of Dell’s total revenue. Specifically, India and China were up 21 and 20 percent, respectively.

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of the company said in a release: “We continue to see great momentum in the high-growth areas of our business, which is a direct reflection of the discipline and strong execution our global Dell team is applying to help solve real-world challenges for our customers. We’re creating efficiency across every step of the IT value chain and ultimately enabling all customers—from home users to large businesses and government organizations—to achieve the outcomes that matter most to them.”

In the third quarter, Dell expects to see revenue roughly flat relative to Q2.

According to a study conducted by Minnesota-based research firm Vocal Laboratories (aka Vocalabs), Apple’s lead in tech support quality is slipping, while consumer satisfaction scores for HP are improving.

Vocalabs interviews people by telephone right after a customer service experience, and for this study completed 4,161 surveys between May 2008 and June 2011.

The firm found that Apple continues to lead both Dell and HP in customer service quality for phone-based technical support, but customers are reporting more problems with the automated part of calls.

In interviews immediately following a support call, 58 percent of Apple customers were “Very Satisfied” with the experience during the first half of this year, compared to 47 percent of Dell customers and 53 percent of HP customers.

Apple’s satisfaction score is down 15 points from a year ago, while HP has improved 9 points over the past two years.

Says Peter Leppik, CEO of Vocalabs:

“Apple used to be well ahead of the pack in tech support. Now it would be fair to say that they are merely at the front of the pack. Apple used to lead on nearly every metric for support quality. Now there are several metrics where Apple is tied with its competition, or even trails.”

It’s worth noting customers remain quite satisfied with Apple’s support agents, with 77 percent of customers in the first six months of 2011 indicating that they were “Very Satisfied” with the technician, compared to 56 percent of Dell customers and 61 percent of HP customers.

However, only 24 percent of Apple customers reported being “Very Satisfied” with the automated part of their support calls, trailing Dell with 36 percent and HP with 40 percent.

In surveys held between May 2008 and June 2011, 40 percent of Apple customers reported a problem with the automated part of the call, nearly double the 21 percent rate from a year ago.

If you agree that Apple’s tech support isn’t as good as it used to be, please press 1.

The Dell Streak 10, whose cousins we reviewed here and here, is a 10-inch Honeycomb tablet that Dell is releasing in China this week. However, the interesting thing about this image is that the Dell Streak 10 and the Dell Streak 7 are both running Honeycomb, a welcome relief for those saddled with the Streak’s outdated OS.

These tablets are odd in that Dell is making and selling them in Asia with a secondary interesting the rest of the world. Perhaps they have more market traction in China or perhaps folks just love them some Streaks over there, but regardless we can expect to see the 10 arrive here in the next few months.

Nothing new under the hood, however: 1280×800 pixel resolution, WiFi, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel front facing. It also has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. No pricing yet but keep your eyes peeled.