Dell Streak enters tablet fray

The percolating war of the tablet PCs in the U.S. market is seeing a new entrant this week in the form of the long-awaited Dell Streak.

It might be the first tablet whose form factor—featuring a five-inch screen — bridges the already fairly narrow gap between smartphone and tablet PC. But regardless of how you classify it, the Dell Streak’s success ultimately will be measured in comparison to the iconic Apple devices that came before it: the iPhone in the smartphone sector and the iPad in the burgeoning tablet PC market.

The Dell Streak is the second tablet PC, after the iPad, to launch on AT&T’s network. It uses the Android 1.6 operating system and ranges in price from about $300 to more than $800, depending on the memory and level of AT&T voice and broadband services. The low price is linked to a two-year contract for AT&T GPRS/EDGE voice and data service. The high-end price includes 3G, in addition to more memory and other features. It also has Wi-Fi connectivity. As with the iPhone, AT&T has an exclusive on the Dell Streak’s U.S. launch, but a version unlocked from AT&T’s network will cost about $550.

The device will be generally available online starting this Friday. While this week marks the device’s U.S. market debut, the Dell Streak has been available in the U.K., where it features broadband service from O2, since June.

The screen size of the Dell Streak makes it roughly half the size of the iPad, though the 3 million or so people who own iPads have not exactly been complaining about that tablet being too big, and Apple and AT&T have made a point to tout the screen size as appropriate for video viewing.

The size of the iPad’s customer base also serves as a reminder that it had a head start. And in addition to being supported by a rapidly expanding Android applications market, the iPad also has found its way into different usage scenarios: Comcast has envisioned using the iPad as remote control for its Xfinity broadband video service, and Time Warner Cable recently countered with its own take on the iPad as a TV remote and more. The iPad’s potential utility may also have inspired Motorola and Verizon to work on a tablet PC that could be tied to the telco’s FiOS TV service.

As tablet PCs are deployed in such new scenarios, users and reviewers may worry less about whether the Dell Streak is a smartphone or a tablet (The New York Times says it’s a phone), but for now that may be the least of its problems. Early reviews have been mostly negative.