Just one day after Dell announced it was moving into the market of netbooks by introducing its new Inspiron Mini 9, which weighs less than 2.3 pounds and has an 8.9-inch LED display, the company said it is partnering with Vodafone to resell the Mini 9 in Europe.

The two companies said Friday that the Mini 9 would be sold with a Vodafone built-in mobile broadband connection, which supports High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Sales will be exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, later that month in key markets in Europe.

“Dell and Vodafone have teamed up to offer 3G/mobile broadband support in the Inspiron Mini — a device that is built for Net connectivity on the go,” said Anne Camden, a spokesperson for Dell, in an e-mail. “Dell and Vodafone initially teamed up in 2006 to offer integrated HSPA support across Dell’s commercial and consumer laptops and continue to do so today.”

“Vodafone will plus offer the Inspiron Mini through its retail outlets, which fits our retail strategy: develop the right products that will appeal to our retail partners’ customers, and expose Dell products to customers we may not have typically reached in the past,” Camden added.

Dell’s other retail partners in Europe include Carrefour, Tesco and DSGi.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell and Vodafone would not reveal in precisely which markets the Mini 9 would be available or how much it will cost. “Details around specific market availability will follow in the next few weeks,” Camden said.

Key Features

The Vodafone-equipped netbook will allow owners to surf the Web, share photos on social-networking sites, and connect any place and any duration, according to Dell and Vodafone. Features include an solid-state drive that holds up to 16GB compared to a traditional laptop hard drive.

“The recent acceleration in the…

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