Summit Notebook

Dell: stay tuned for “Streak”

It’s hard to tell how much anticipation there is out there for Dell’s upcoming “Streak” micro-tablet. The No. 3 PC maker’s latest foray into a consumer arena that Apple’s iPad has essentially helped create is set to hit stores this summer in the United States.

Consumer business unit chief Steve Felice told the Reuters Global Technology Summit that Dell isn’t interested in becoming the No. 1 player in the smartphone and tablet mobile devices categories, where Apple and Google are waging a very high-profile war. But the former leader in personal computers fully intends to be a “top-tier player”.

“We look at this whole thing as an experience between the computer and the remote device. We still view these as complementary devices,” he said.

Like a bunch of other tablet computers in the pipeline — courtesy of everyone from Hewlett Packard to Acer – Dell’s is getting a fair share of Web attention, but this one is a little different though. At just 5-inches, the gizmo isn’t quite a smartphone, yet can’t quite call itself a tablet a la Apple’s 11-inch product.

It remains to be seen where consumers will actually want a smartphone-tablet size-hybrid. Much of that may depend on price of course, but Felice isn’t talking — yet.

(Photo courtesy of tech blog Engadget)

from MediaFile:

Don’t look for Sony’s iPad killer any time soon

Don't expect to see Sony's response to Apple's iPad tablet computer any time soon.

We talked to Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer, who was in town to discuss the unveiling of Google TV, the  initiative that marries the Web to television. Stringer was very excited about that product, which will appear first in Sony TVs later this year, giving the electronics maker a head start against what is expected to be a future filled with Internet-enabled TVs. While noting that Sony's digital book reader product sales are still strong, he seemed much less thrilled about any iPad-killer plans for Sony, maker of the popular Vaio line of computers.

Everybody's now making one aren't they? Tablets, tablets, as far as the eye can see.

We have to find a way to make it cost competitive. Apple's brilliance is always to make a relationship with an operator or someone to pay a significant part of it. That's something we haven't been successful at. Even with Google and Sony Ericsson, we are still working on relationships with operators.

We have got to master all of that before we simply launch yet another unprofitable product onto the marketplace.

Stringer's comments come after Sony's CFO earlier in the year said that the company aims to launch new products that will vie with Apple's iPad, and has the necessary technology, but added "there is no denying that we are running a bit behind."

A Sony representative confirmed that while Sony is studying the tablet PC market, it has "no concrete plans at this time to come to market with such a product."

(Photo: Sir Howard Stringer at the introduction of Google TV in San Francisco)

Is Apple in Intel’s future?

Apple developed the processor for it’s recently launched iPad tablet PC in-house. Intel was left waiting on the sidelines but change may be in store. Future tablets from other device makers, and maybe even Apple, could prove to be a lucrative for the world’s largest chipmaker. And why not, Intel already makes the microprocessors that are used in more than three quarters of the world’s PCs. Tom Kilroy, Intel senior vice president and general manager of sales and marketing, says “wait til Computex” for a big announcement. So, what’s likely to come out of the industry trade show this June in Taipei? Any thoughts? Click below to hear what Kilroy had to say in San Francisco at the 2010 Reuters Global Technology Summit.

Intel on Tablet Opportunities from Reuters TV on Vimeo.