Dell to Launch Android Tablet In UK

Dell has surprised the world with the Streak, a small tablet with a 5-inch screen, running the Android operating system – and is shipping it to the UK first.

The screen is only half the size of the iPad’s, but early reviews in places like The Times report that, for instance, films are far more watchable on the device than on a smartphone.

Streak is exclusively on O2

The device – which will arrive exclusively on O2 in the UK in June – actually sounds closer to a smartphone than a tablet, as it can make phone calls, and includes a five Mpixel camera (a feature expected in future iPads).

The interesting thing about the Streak is that it demonstrates that despite the iPad’s consummate success, it has not drawn a line under future changes in the sector.

There’s still clearly plenty of room for different takes on the tablet concept, and reviews of the iPad see it as a work in progress which would benefit from multitasking and a camera. In fact Dell is planning to launch different versions with seven and ten inch screens.

“Most phones today are designed for calls first, data second,” Paul-Henri Ferrand, Dell’s chief marketing officer, told The Times. “What we have found is that people are using a lot more data than voice. We think the Streak will be the first machine of its kind. Where the whole usage is driven by data first, and then the phone.”

Although Dell executives hinted at a tablet launch in a call last week, and a prototype was shown at the CES show earlier this year,  the device has slipped out very quickly, beating other tablet players such as HP (whose Slate is due in October) and Google (which is working on a tablet with Verizon). BT has also promised to launch a tablet phone.

Analysts have predicted a goldrush in tablets, in response to the success of the iPad which sold one million units in the first month.