You may have seen some speculation on when we will introduce a 10-inch tablet based on Android. You may have seen the recent CNET story on the topic. With this post, I'm here to confirm that Dell is indeed working on 10-inch tablet products – an Android-based tablet for “prosumers,” and a Windows 7-based tablet for enterprise customers, due out later this year.
I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the 10-inch Android-based tablet. We will launch the Streak 10 Pro in China later this summer. We will evaluate other regions and segments in the second half of 2011.
Why China?
Well it’s simple. The next one billion people to come onto the Internet will be from emerging countries, with the majority from the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). These countries present tremendous growth and opportunity to Dell as a company.
In Q1, we noted that revenue from growth markets (which excludes the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and Japan) represented 27 percent of total company revenue and this is expected to increase over the coming year. In China in particular, we’re currently number 2 in the Chinese PC market and we’re seeing a significant increase in the number of small and medium-business users, who are adopting mobility products as part of their growth plans. In Q1, our revenue from China grew 22 percent.
We’re confident the new Streak 10 Pro will help them achieve their professional goals. In addition, we have a significant – and rapidly growing – retail presence in China, with more than 10,000 locations where customers can buy Dell products throughout the region.
Why not also launch in the US and Europe?
In each market where we do business, we want to deliver a product when we’re ready to offer a complete suite of productivity and security services and applications to complement the hardware. Our goal is to provide the complete experience that our customers expect from us. In China, access to Google applications and the Android Market is not available today in many cases. Therefore, the end product (encompassing the hardware, software, and availability of applications, services and solutions) delivered in China will be significantly different to what would be delivered in many other countries. That’s why it makes sense to start there. We will use what we learn in China to shape mobile products we’ll offer in other places down the road.
Offering an Android 10” tablet in these markets at a later date allows developers more time to create robust apps, particularly for mobile professionals. It also allows more time for companies developing services and solutions to optimize their product for Android.
Bottom line, we remain committed to the tablet space. It’s important to remember that tablets are still new in the scheme of things. There’s no question that tablets are growing exponentially, but it’s important to remember laptops and desktops will comprise the vast majority of computing products for the foreseeable future. Mainstream customer awareness and business adoption is in the nascent stages. This space will grow and evolve over the next few years, and we want to take steps to ensure that Dell is well positioned to deliver mobile products and solutions that serve all of our customers.
