UPDATE: Dell: To Sell Smartphone With Baidu Software Platform

Dell Inc. (DELL) said Tuesday it would start selling a smartphone in China using a software platform developed by Chinese search-engine operator Baidu Inc. (BIDU).

The "Streak Pro" phone, the first to be developed using the Baidu software, will be customized for use on the network of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU), Dell said in a statement.

Baidu in September announced a software platform called Baidu Yi, essentially a Baidu variation on Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system that Baidu has said would also be compatible with other operating systems later. Baidu Yi will be pre-installed on mobile phones so developers can more easily integrate Baidu features on the devices.

A Dell spokeswoman said the phone will go on sale sometime before the Chinese New Year holiday, which falls in late January next year.

Dell didn't give pricing details for the phone.

Dell's Greater China president, Michael Yang, said the Streak Pro phone will be sold in other markets after the version using Baidu's software launches in China. He didn't elaborate.

Baidu Vice President Wang Jing said the company is "exploring" how it could put Baidu Yi on Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) mobile operating system, but has hit hurdles in talks with Apple about its commercial terms.

An Apple spokeswoman didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.

Baidu is also exploring putting Baidu Yi on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform and is open to considering the same for other operating systems, he said.

Dell currently has almost no presence in the China smartphone market.

In the third quarter, Nokia Corp. led China's smartphone market with a 27% share of the 22 million units sold to users in the country, followed by Samsung Electronics Co. with 19% and Huawei Technologies Co. with 11%, according to market researcher Gartner Inc. Apple Inc. ranked fourth with 10% and ZTE Corp. fifth with 8%.

Baidu has overtaken much of Google's share of the Chinese search market since the U.S. company moved its China search engine to Hong Kong early last year because of concerns about censorship and hacking in China. Baidu had a 78.2% share of revenue in China's online-search market in the third quarter, while Google's share was 17.2%, according to estimates by Beijing research firm Analysys International.

-By Owen Fletcher, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 8400 7702; [e-mail]