U.K.-based O2 subscribers signing up for a 24-month data plan priced at $36.38 per month -- or an integrated data/voice plan priced at $50.93 per month -- will get the new mobile device free. The Dell Streak, which is slated to become available on AT&T's U.S. network in the latter half of July, also can be purchased from O2 as a no-contract, pay-as-you-go device priced at $580.67.
Although Apple's iPhone did not have a single competitor for a long time, the iPad will have strong competitors -- and the Dell Streak will probably be one, noted IDC Research Manager Francisco Jeronimo. "This does not mean that Apple won't be the leader in this segment, but it will have to be more competitive because the other devices will be a much better value for the money and Apple cannot rely only on its brand," Jeronimo said.
Finding A Niche
The IDC analyst also thinks there is definitely a market need for a mobile device that falls midway between a netbook and a smartphone. "We will see different form factors being launched throughout this year, with different screen sizes and running different operating systems," Jeronimo said.
Henry Dewing, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, also sees a market need for devices like the Dell Streak that promise to enable mobile information workers to communicate and collaborate.
"This device is important because it is small enough to carry, yet large enough to see video and other digital media," Dewing wrote in a blog. "And it has the hardware features to support collaboration via...
In addition, company CEO Eric Schmidt told the Financial Times this week that an engineer who inserted software into the Street View vehicles' programs -- code that captured the unauthorized information -- is now the subject of an internal company investigation.
Seven Class-Action Suits
At least seven class-action lawsuits have been filed or are being planned in the U.S. in which the plaintiffs contend Google violated federal wiretapping laws. There are also criminal and other government investigations in Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain and others, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been asked by members of Congress to see if laws were broken.
The Street View controversy stems from the collection of private wireless data from Google vehicles, which have ridden down streets worldwide to collect photos for use in the company's Street View application within Google Maps. Google said about 600GB of data was mistakenly collected in 30 countries.
According to Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace, the company has acknowledged it collected SSID information from wireless routers. That information contains Wi-Fi network names and MAC addresses, which are the unique numbers given to Wi-Fi routers. At first, Google said it didn't collect "payload data," or the private information sent over networks.
But Eustace later noted that "we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks." The payload data includes fragments of web sites, e-mails and possibly personal banking data. Eustace added that the data has never been used in Google products, and only fragments were collected because the vehicles were...
The first 3G/4G phone to hit the market features free two-way video chat, built-in mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, and the Android 2.1 operating system.
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