Dell remains undeterred, even after carriers rejected its first attempts at making a smartphone on the basis of being dull. The company’s CEO Michael Dell said during a speech in Tokyo today: “It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices. We don’t have any announcements to share today, but stay tuned as when we have new news we will share that with you.” Last week, an analyst wrote in a report to investors that Dell’s smartphone prototypes were rejected by carriers for not being different enough, which led to speculation that Dell might be interested in acquiring a handset maker, like Palm (NSDQ: PALM), to gain a presence in the business. In addition to confirming that Dell is still interested in the space, the company said acquisitions are an option, but that it is not part of their M&A focus right now, according to ComputerWorld reported.

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ComputerWorld reported that during the speech Dell admitted to closely watching the space because of the “ecosystems” that are building up around small mobile devices among companies such as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Dell: “For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks. We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.” Dell declined to comment on a report in today’s Commercial Times newspaper in Taiwan that it had placed an order with the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics to make smartphones.