Past rumors have linked a Lenovo phone running Android with the Ophone name.

Dell was participating in a China Mobile event, where the operator announced its mobile application store, Bowins said.

Rumors of a new phone from Dell have been circulating all year. The computer maker once made a handheld device, the Axim PDA, but cancelled it in 2007.

Dell would not comment on whether it intends to introduce a phone in other regions beyond China. If it does, it would be entering an increasingly crowded and competitive market. The introduction of the iPhone, and subsequent challengers including the Palm Pre and Android devices, has changed customer expectations for how smartphones should look and what they should do. Still, the market for cell phones continues to grow and China is the largest cell-phone market in the world, so Dell may be hoping to capitalize on both trends.