Dell Streak, iPad, iPhone…phew?! AccMan

The Dell Streak will hit the UK market on June 4th at O2 stores. As a Mac Fanboi and gadget nut toys like this fascinate me. Arguments persist whether the iPad is the nuts. In the last week I’ve seen plenty of them being toted around conferences. Hasso Plattner, co-founder SAP used one in demos at SAPPHIRE but only so the camera didn’t have to overzoom onto an iPhone. I took my iPad on my transatlantic trips and thoroughly enjoyed the fact it didn’t run out of battery while watching movies. Would a 5 inch device hold more allure?

There’s something vaguely odd about the idea of holding that size of device up to the ear for taking calls. I guess that’s why on the video the demo guy talks about Bluetooth and headsets. On the other hand, having the Android OS at its heart means multi-tasking and no exclusion of Flash based players or services, which Apple has eschewed. You could always think about this size of device as something useful for demonstrating online systems to clients. But then I’d want to use the iPad.

The smartphone market is interesting at multiple levels as different vendors experiment with different sizes and try figure out where best to position these devices. The last few weeks I’ve heard many vendors talk about iPhone as the metaphor for deploying new applications. SAP says part of its rational for acquiring Sybase was for that company’s mobile capability. I see more professional accountants toting this device instead of the otherwise ubiquitous Blackberry.

All of which is bound to leave people confused.

PS - Zoli Erdos thinks it is in no-man’s land