AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega referred to a Dell smartphone during his recent address at the Mobile World Congress Trade show. At first glance, he appeared to (finally!) confirm Dell's plans to break into the smartphone market.The rumors of a Dell smartphone have been on-again/off-again for over two years. The rumors have recently kicked into high gear, and de la Vega ramped up the excitement when he mentioned a Dell smartphone during his keynote today in Barcelona.

He was speaking about the number of phone makers that have recently begun producing smartphones. His exact words in reference to Dell were, "Dell has announced they're entering the smartphone market."

Dell has not announced anything that I am aware of. All we've heard is rumors and speculation.

An AT&T spokesperson later e-mailed me and said, "Ralph was just referring to the fact that there's a lot of news coverage about a Dell smartphone and was commenting that OEMs are coming to market all the time (mentioned Garmin, too), and not that a new device was officially announced by Dell."

Be that as it may, the blogosphere took Mr. de la Vega's comments literally and ran with it. There were tons of headlines today blaring "AT&T Confirms Dell Smartphone."

Given AT&T's swift response to the remarks, and Dell's total lack of comment on the matter, it is possible that Mr. de la Vega misspoke.

Of course, it is also possible that Dell is working on a smartphone.

I'll let you decide.