Hasta La Gadget!

Dell is inching closer to the release of its first tablet, the Mini 5 aka ‘Streak’. The device will debut on AT&T in “late summer,” company CEO Michael Dell said at a conference.

And for once, Europe will get a gadget ahead of the U.S., as the Streak will launch on O2 Telefonica.

The Sony PlayStation Portable-sized Streak isn’t directly an iPad competitor. The Streak has a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor.

It will run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0 or higher. But instead of just processing data, Dell hopes to offer a SIM card option so users can make phone calls through the device. Dell hasn’t commented on pricing for the device.

At this point, Dell’s tablet seems the first real shot against the Apple’s iPad. Dell rival HP’s efforts with its ‘Slate’ tablet has been mired in uncertainty since the company’s acquisition of smartphone maker Palm. Reports suggest that HP may re-work its tablet to run Palm webOS operating system, instead of Windows 7. HP has declined to comment on what it calls as “rumor and speculation.”

See Also:

• Dell’s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple’s iPad
• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Gallery: 8 Tablets That Aren’t Made by Apple
• HP Offers Another Peek at its Tablet, Specs Leaked?
• HP Slate Could Get a Makeover With Palm’s WebOS

Photo: Dell Mini 5 (ndevil/Flickr)

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam says that his company is working closely with Google on a tablet computer. The tablet will be based on the Android operating system.

While neither Verizon or Google would confirm the hardware partner, McAdam mentioned Google in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “We’re working on tablets together, for example,” he said. “We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

By “archives”, we guess that McAdam means Google’s rather long list of products and services. Between Google’s books, map, email, chat, latitude and other products, it would be pretty easy to stock a tablet with all that it needs initially.

McAdam hinted that the Verizon tablet would come about in a similar way to the Droid phone, with Google’s OS, third-party hardware and Verizon’s data network. Don’t expect it too soon, either. Admitting that Verizon has been “handicapped” by its CDMA network, McAdam said new devices would be available to run on the company’s new LTE 4G network early next year.

Another tidbit from the interview: It looks like Verizon will be shutting down unlimited, per-device data plans in favor of a “bucket of megabytes.” These data-capped plans would be shared between devices — a tablet, a cellphone and an e-reader, for example.

This is exciting stuff. It looks like Apple will be facing stiffer competition in the tablet market than it ever did in the iPod market. With Android tablets now confirmed, and an HP/Palm tablet all but certain, hopefully consumers will see the benefit of all-out tablet war.

Verizon, Google Developing iPad Rival [Wall Street Journal]

Picture: nDevilTV/Flickr

See Also:

• NYT: Google Android Tablet Imminent
• Mock-ups Show a Google Chrome OS Tablet
• How to Make an iPad-Beating Tablet
• Adobe Demonstrates Flash on Android Tablet

The first serious challenge to the Apple iPad is coming from the most obvious of teams: According to Verizon Chief Exec Lowell McAdam, the carrier is working with Google on “a tablet computer.” This should be fun. More »

The acquisition of smartphone maker Palm could have an impact on HP’s plans for its “Slate” tablet.

The Slate could be re-branded “Hurricane” and released with a new operating system based on Palm’s WebOS, according to a blog post on the Examiner.com web site. The Hurricane could be released in the third quarter of the year.

For tablet enthusiasts who want a device that’s not created by Apple, the HP Slate — a tablet with iPad-like styling — seems like a promising alternative. But the Slate’s development has been slow and rocky. Apple has already sold more than 1 million iPads while HP has been trying to finish its product.

HP introduced the Slate to gadget enthusiasts through a video in March. The company didn’t announce technical specifications for the device, but it released two short video clips that indicated the device would run Windows 7.

The Slate would also have a built-in camera, video-recording capability, USB port, an SD card reader and support for Adobe Flash — features pointedly aimed at the iPad, which lacks all five. A leaked company document suggested the Slate would cost $550 or $600 for the 32-GB and 64-GB models, respectively.

But late last month, HP said it was acquiring smartphone maker Palm. Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold associates says Palm’s new operating system, WebOS, created for its Palm Pre and Pixi phones could be a good fit for the HP tablet. Later, TechCrunch reported that HP could kill its Windows 7 tablet and instead find a way to launch a product that would use WebOS.

The latest suggestion that HP might re-brand the Slate as Hurricane seems to bear out the rumors of a WebOS-based tablet.

A HP spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company does not talk about “rumors and speculation.” The HP and Palm acquisition closes in July, and till then, the two companies are expected to continue to act independently, according to government rules.

Examiner.com doesn’t have a track record when it comes to gadget rumors but, if you take into account the buzz from different sources, it is likely that HP is re-evaluating its plans for the Slate. The question is, how long can the company afford to wait with Apple already charging ahead with the iPad?

See Also:

• HP’s Windows 7 Slate Strikes at the iPad
• Leaked HP Slate Fails to Impress in Early Peek
• HP Offers Another Peek at Its Tablet, Specs Leaked?
• Gallery: 8 Tablets That Aren’t Made by Apple

Photo: HP

The iPad isn’t considered a netbook, but Apple’s month-old tablet is already pounding on the budget computing category, according to market numbers.

Research conducted by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty shows that netbook sales have slowed down dramatically since January — when the iPad was announced, and shrunk even more in April when the iPad shipped. Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt concludes that Apple’s tablet is gobbling up netbook sales.

“As her chart (above) shows, sales growth of these low-cost, low-powered computing devices peaked last summer at an astonishing 641 percent year-over-year growth rate,” Elmer-DeWitt said. “It fell off a cliff in January and shrank again in April — collateral damage, according to Huberty, from the January introduction and April launch of the iPad.”

Of course, looking at the graph you’ll notice a general decline in netbook sales over the course of 2009, so it’s possible that the downward trend simply carried over to 2010. However, corroborating the correlation between the introduction of the iPad and shrinkage in netbook sales, Huberty also cited a survey conducted by Morgan Stanley in March, which found that 44 percent of U.S. consumers who were planning to buy an iPad said they were buying it instead of a netbook or notebook computer.

Netbooks — lightweight, 10-inch notebooks costing between $300 and $600 — were a sizzling product category in 2008. That year, manufacturers shipped over 10 million netbooks, and the mini notes continued to sell well in 2009. ABI Research forecasted that manufacturers will ship 200 million ultra-portable devices by 2013, which is about the same anticipated size as the current laptop market worldwide. The ultra-portable device category includes both netbooks and tablets, and at this rate, the iPad just might dominate the mobile PC market.

This is exactly what Steve Jobs had planned all along. Apple resisted producing a netbook, calling the miniature computers $500 pieces of “junk.” And when Jobs introduced the iPad, he highlighted its strengths — web browsing, e-mail, watching movies and other tasks — while noting that netbooks “aren’t good at anything.”

So far, it looks like Jobs’ sales pitch is working. Apple sold 1 million iPads in just one month.

See Also:

• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• iPad Could See 50 Tablet Rivals This Year
• How the Tablet Will Change the World
• 5 Features the Apple Tablet Definitely Won’t Have — But Should …
• How Will the Apple Tablet iPad Change Our Kids’ Lives?

Photo: Brian Derballa/Wired.com; charts courtesy of Morgan Stanley