Dell's Streak tablet to go on sale Aug. 12
After delays, Dell will start to ship the highly anticipated Streak mobile Internet device to customers in the U.S. this week. — After delays, Dell will start to ship the highly anticipated Streak mobile Internet device to customers in the U.S. this week.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Streak has been a slow-burn rollout: Dell confirmed an Android-powered slate at its CES 2010 keynote in January, Michael Dell showed what looked like a 5-inch Mini 5 that same month without confirming a U.S. launch, and images of larger 7-inch and 10-inch Streak designs surfaced in April — still unconfirmed by Dell. In late July the company said on its blog that the Streak had become its most successful pre-sale ever, on strong registration interest from U.S. and international customers.
Shipping to U.S. buyers on August 12 closes the gap between teaser and product for Dell's first entry in the phone-tablet gap category, and it lands while Dell is telling investors it is returning to its regular growth curve after the 2008-09 downturn — making the Streak's reception a test case for whether consumer devices can broaden a business built on corporate PCs.
First-order effects
- U.S. customers who registered during the July pre-sale start taking delivery this week, turning Dell's claimed record registration demand into actual unit sales and its first shipped revenue from the category.
Second-order effects
- If the 5-inch Streak sells through, pressure mounts on Dell to confirm the 7-inch and 10-inch versions shown in the April leaks — and on rival PC makers watching the phone-slate gap to decide whether to field their own entries rather than concede it.
Third-order effects
- A successful Streak would push Dell further from its build-to-order PC identity toward consumer device portfolios sold through social channels — a direction the company has already been moving since it began leaning on social-networking sites to drive PC sales in 2009.
The trend: PC makers are reaching into the space between smartphone and tablet with Android devices, using pre-registration demand to justify form-factor bets like Dell's 5-inch Streak.