With the sale of Motorola’s handset business sounding more and more likely, another possible buyer has entered the spotlight. Dell is now rumoured to be interested in buying the struggling mobile phone division.

After Motorola announced its disappointing financial results for 2007, speculation about a possible sale has been rife. Industry analysts have mentioned Chinese handset makers ZTE and Huawei as likely buyers, but an acquisition from the PC industry would also make sense.

As mobile phones become more important access points to the internet, it’s only natural that companies from the computer and internet worlds start getting interested in mobile.

An increasing number of Wi-Fi enabled handsets are coming to the market, with Nokia said to have shipped over a million Wi-Fi phones last year. The user experience of internet on mobile has also improved tremendously, increasing the number of people accessing the internet from their mobile phones.

And importantly, Apple with its iPhone has shown that it is possible for hardware companies to become successful in the mobie industry too. 

Dell is also rumoured to be a possible partner for Google, another internet player with big plans for mobile. The computer maker is thought to be a likely partner for Google’s G phone and the Android technology platform.