Dell Streak
Retail price: $550 ($199 with AT&T contract)
Dell's foray into the "Is it a phone or a tablet--wait, it's both!" category should have, in theory, been a big success. But the device came with a few crippling flaws. First, Dell (DELL) may have asked too much, too soon, of consumers. Smaller than the iPad, but larger than the iPhone and other Android smartphones, it wasn't clear what kind of user Dell exactly was targeting: Men with unusually large hands? Women with purses and Bluetooth headsets? In other words, the Streak has the classic "answer to a question no one asked" problem.
It also came with an older version of the Android OS, which made it balky to use. A recent update to Android 2.2, Froyo, has made the phone/tablet relevant and even slick to use, but consumers are already cozying up to the idea of buying multiple devices -- a smartphone AND a tablet, not a combo device that sacrifices the best of both worlds. All that means that the Streak may be filling a niche that consumers just aren't interested in exploring.
NEXT: Maylong M-150 Android tablet
Last updated December 22 2010: 8:24 AM ET
