Dell Streak is dead: Lessons for other tablets

PC World - Dell has announced that the Streak 7 is no longer available. The death of the Dell Android tablet line doesnt come as much of a surprise, but it points to some lessons that other tablets might learn from to be stronger competitors.

Dell has given it a valiant effort. It was the first major company to come out with a tablet to compete with Apple's iPad, and it has developed and subsequently pulled the plug on--both a 5-inch and 7-inch model of the Streak. It is sad to see Dell abandon the tablet market, but, overall, the death of the Dell Streak -- or any single tablet other than the iPad -- has little bearing on the tablet market.

Why, you ask? Basically, the answer is that up to now there hasn't been a tablet market, just an iPad market. It seems that the Amazon Kindle Fire will shift that debate some, but it remains to be seen just how much.

Based on recent figures, the Apple iPad is on pace to sell 40 million or 50 million tablets in 2011, while all rivals combined have sold just over a million. It is also worth noting that the leader in non-iPad tablets is the HP TouchPad, which didn't sell at all until HP pulled the plug on the device and clearanced out its inventory for $99.

Using those figures, all other tablets combined make up a negligible segment of the tablet market, and any single tablet, such as the Dell Streak, has no significant impact one way or the other. Here are a few things other tablet rivals should keep in mind if they don't want to follow the Dell Streak to extinction:

$200 Subsidized Is Not the Same as $200

Price is obviously a consideration in comparing tablet options. Most iPad rivals have priced themselves on par with the Apple tablet and most have failed to sell any appreciable number of tablets at that price.

As evidenced by the frenzy over the HP TouchPad fire sale, the relative success of the BlackBerry PlayBook at the greatly reduced price of $200, and the phenomenal sales of the Kindle Fire at $200, it seems that there is a market for non-iPad tablets when the price is right. But, some tablets resort to wireless carrier subsidies -- like a smartphone -- to get the price into that range.

Judging by the tepid reception and poor sales, customers don't agree that $200 with a two-year contract tied to a mandatory wireless data plan is the same thing as a $200 tablet. For iPad rivals to sell, they need to be priced competitively without strings attached.