Not to be outdone by Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) announced their own 7-inch tablet computer this week. Unlike RIM’s PlayBook, however, Dell will release their iPad competitor within the next few weeks. This is according to Dell Greater China President Amit Midha. In an interview, Midha confirmed that the 7-inch device briefly shown off by Dell CEO Michael Dell at an Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) conference last week would be launching this fall, to be followed by 3-inch and 4-inch palm devices, and a new 10-inch tablet that will come out sometime in the next 6 to 12 months.
The 7-inch tablet, which is being positioned as Dell’s major competitor to Apple Inc.‘s (NASDAQ: APPL) 9.7-inch sales juggernaut, will be powered by Google Inc.‘s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system. Midha did not, however, say whether the 7-inch tablet would be running on the upcoming Gingerbread operating system, Android version 2.3, or the version 2.1 (Éclair) operating system that power’s Dell’s 5-inch Dell Streak. (He also didn’t confirm whether the 7- and 10-inch tablets would share the Streak branding at all.) The Android operating system actually isn’t guaranteed inclusion in all of Dell’s upcoming handhelds, with Midha claiming that at least a few of the company’s new products would use Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows operating system.
Dell has a lot of catching up to do if it hopes to compete against Apple in the tablet market. The 5-inch Dell Streak, which has yet to release outside of the United Kingdom, currently retails at £399 (around $627) and has made almost no impact on the market, with a feature set barely on par with Motorola‘s (NYSE: MOT) line of Droid smartphones. While they will benefit from bringing their tablet to market ahead of Research in Motion’s PlayBook and Motorola’s rumored tablet backed by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Google, their plan to release multiple devices at high prices that lack comparable functionality will ultimately destroy their chances in the burgeoning tablet market. This is the same mistake Dell has made with their new smartphone, the Aero.
While Dell’s control of the American and European PC markets has declined significantly over the past three years, consistently losing ground to Apple’s popular line of MacBook laptops, they have been enjoying a very healthy PC business in China. During his interview, Midha said that Dell expects the Chinese PC market to grow by as much as 20% over the next 18 months, eclipsing the American PC market in the process and helping increase Dell’s worldwide market share. With Apple’s presence growing in China, however, Dell faces an uphill battle to not see their fate in the West repeated in the East.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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