In yet another sign that the tablet market is becoming a two-horse race, Dell has stopped selling its Android-based Streak tablet in the US. A note on the company’s website reads: “Streak 7 is no longer available online”.
So another one bites the dust. Like the HP TouchPad before it, the Streak may now finally see some substantial sales at a clearance price. But, also like the TouchPad, it failed to generate enough excitement in the market and was never going to take share from the all-conquering iPad.
Dell, much like HP, RIM and Motorola, chose to compete in classic IT fashion, on specs – nice processor, memory, SD card slot, and so on. But a tablet market dominated by the iPad isn’t really about specs, it’s about convenience, content and, above all, desirability.
The $199 Kindle Fire is a different proposition altogether, and it will be hugely successful in 2012. In sales volumes it may even challenge the iPad (which is set to sell a mind-boggling 40-50 million units this year). What Jeff Bezos and Amazon understand is that there’s no point going head-to-head with Apple. And more than any other tablet bar the iPad, the Fire has one key ingredient: buzz, excitement, hype, call it what you will… in an Apple-led personal device market you can’t compete without it.