What is going on with the Dell Venue Pro? We try and find out

Yesterday some confusing information came out that the Dell Venue Pro, Dell’s Windows Phone 7 handset, might be delayed even longer.

We didn’t have enough to run the story we felt, after all we have had two different confirmations (date and price) on Dell’s website that seemed to say that all was well in Venue Pro land.

Wrong, as it turns out, we were. Dell has put out a statement (below) that seems to detail just about what is going on, so much as we can tell. We have highlighted portions of it that are important, feel free to skim:

I [Dell rep]  just wanted to share the latest ‘unofficial’ information that I have. As you know, we’ve had several issues reported with this product. Right now, Dell is trying to coordinate a plan with Microsoft to address these issues for the early adopters. From what I understand, it may require another hardware swap. Further, the Venue Pros are being reworked in the factories to address some of the issues and we are awaiting these changes so the product can ship. This is affecting new orders as well.

Once we have good stock in place, then we have the ability to provide replacements. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a good estimate of when that will be. The news I hear changes daily and I hate to give you information that won’t be true tomorrow. For example, yesterday we heard that those folks with existing orders would be receiving a call from our cancel/re-enter team because there were going to be additional delays. However, today, we are hearing that some of these orders will be shipping this week. I couldn’t tell you which ones.

These delays are affecting both Microsoft early adopters and those of you with new orders. While I agree that this was not the best mobile device launch, I hope you take comfort in the fact that there is a good reason for the delays – fixing issues.

Having said all that, I want to let you know that if you are an early adopter (purchased from MS store), we continue to push for a solution whether that comes from Microsoft or Dell. If you are waiting on a new order and it misses the original estimated ship date, you do have the option to cancel by contacting the sales team.

Right, so it seems that even integrally Dell is confused about what is going on. Given that so few Venue Pros were sold on opening day (due to tight supply, not low demand), there are actually very few Venue Pros in the wild. The problem seems to be for everyone who went ahead and clicked those buttons that we showed you that said ‘buy.’

To be honest, if we could have known that there were going to be such problems, we would have never discussed the darn Dell phones. As it stands, if you have an order in, we will bring you the news once it comes out. Until then, hang tight, Dell or Microsoft might be calling you shortly.