Funny, we haven't seen anything in the trades about a major management shakeup in the Wintel industry, and yet we could swear that something absolutely huge happened a little while back. Perhaps the industry just doesn't consider it interesting, but personally, we'd have thought that Michael Dell leaving the company he founded to run the design department over in Sony's VAIO division constitutes some serious tech news. Apparently we just don't have our fingers on the pulse of IT today. Go figure.

What's that? You didn't hear anything about Mikey Dell defecting to Sony? Well, honestly, neither did we, which is what we consider to be so strange; it's as if any mention of the move is being suppressed by the media. Dell's own site still lists the Mikester as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and we can't find any sort of press release announcing the change on Sony's news site. We would have expected the truth to leak out somewhere, but the lid on this story is screwed on so tight, it's almost like they hired Steve Jobs as a secrecy consultant to keep it under wraps.

Still, the truth will out. There's no doubt in our minds that Mike Dell is now working for Sony, because we've seen incontrovertible photographic evidence: faithful viewer Victor pointed out proof positive over at Go2Mac, in the form of a photo of Sony's soon-to-be-released VAIO QR laptop. Take a good long look at that shiny white notebook and tell us it doesn't bear a striking resemblance to Apple's latest iBook; go on, we dare you. Granted, it's a little more rounded than Apple's entry (wow, we didn't think we'd be saying that in this lifetime), but that glossy white finish-- that says "iBook" all over it. (Actually, it says "Sony VAIO" all over it, but you get our drift.)

So is there any doubt that Mike Dell is now on Sony's payroll? After all, who else would so shamelessly and blatantly rip off Apple's distinctive designs? It's definitely not a standard Sony move; heck, if anything, the PowerBook G4 was heavily influenced by Sony's ultrathin VAIO designs. We imagine this could just be payback for that, but we still think this has Dell's fingerprints all over it. Unless, of course, Sony quietly acquired Future Power a while back...