This week, Dell launched the Streak and it, along with the new Blackberry Torch, faces a daunting task of standing out in a market that is defined by the iPhone. Unfortunately, one of the problems I think the current market has is that the iPhone represents the bar with regard to what manufacturers think people want in a phone. However, Apple doesn’t build products that people already want. Their more successful method is to build products that people could want and then use the biggest and most effective marketing budget in tech to drive these people to those products. That is why they can get away with using AT&T even though they are arguably the least capable (due to overcapacity) smartphone carrier in the US. Apple’s model is incredibly successful, but it is based on a one size fits all concept and we aren’t all identical people.

I’m not saying this is bad, because at least Apple’s approach results, when the product doesn’t break, in really happy customers but, realistically no one device is perfect for everyone. If other vendors continue to use Apple as a bar without the marketing, all we will get is less happy people with non-Apple phones.   I think there should be a vendor independent bar in our heads that conforms to our unique needs so we can better match the products in the market to what we uniquely want to do.

Let’s explore this under the context of the Dell Streak and the fact we really aren’t a one size fits all market.

Size Matters

The iPhone has an advanced 3.5” screen with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, the Dell Streak has a larger 5” screen with a lower resolution of 800 x 480. The Apple excels in resolution, the Dell in size.   However, if you actually have to read something you generally have to expand it on the iPhone, that happens less often on the Dell, because the screen is so much larger. Granted, if you have 13/20 vision like I used to have, you can probably read both, but most of us aren’t that fortunate. Whether it is using the screen keyboard, reading from the Kindle application that both now have, watching a movie or sharing a picture, or just browsing the web, the bigger screen is better. In terms of portability and phone use, both devices are substantially larger than the cell phones we used to carry and the Streak likely hits the upper limit. Both also look a bit dorky when held up to your head so both should have headsets.

Currently, I’m being told that the iPhone 4 is having serious Bluetooth problems (Apple isn’t very forthcoming about problems unfortunately), but they are expected to be addressed with a patch in a few months. Android phones haven’t had similar problems that I’m aware of.

When they get flexible displays to work, I’ll bet we go larger than the Streak, because the web is increasingly designed for bigger screens suggesting the spec should be above and not below the Dell in the long term. In fact, the iPad might actually be closer to the ideal size for a display on a future smartphone than the Streak. We’d just have to be able to fold it up so we could carry it better.

Android App Approach vs. Apple’s

Certainly, the US Copyright office has come forward supporting the Google open approach to an application store over Apple’s closed approach and the Streak is an Android phone. This means you are free to either buy your applications and reading material from within the Android store or outside of it.   Given the EU is apparently going down a similar path, it appears that the governments are speaking on behalf of their citizens and arguing for us that freedom is a good thing and want Apple to switch to the Google model. Since the Streak already uses the Google model, it has an advantage there and should set the bar.

You do take a risk when you buy outside of the store. You may find that this is the way you will pick up malware, but that’s the price of freedom and I don’t see that, as a market, we are willing to give that up voluntarily. So, once again, the Dell Streak sets a better bar, if these things are of value to you.

Cameras

Both phones have both forward firing and backwards firing cameras. The forward cameras have lighting sources, but the Dell has the stronger lighting source and with a 5MP camera, light turns out to be really important. While this may seem like a nit, and it kind of is, it once again points to the problem of Apple setting the bar because the more light the better and the Dell with two bright LEDs puts out substantially more light.

Mature Platform

The Dell Streak uses the time-tested Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, which means even in beta form it hasn’t had the problems with the radios or performance that the new iPhone has been struggling with.    Just as Steve Jobs discovered he couldn’t keep up with the Power architecture against Intel/AMD, I think he will likely discover he can’t keep up with ARM against Qualcomm, Marvell, Nvidia and Freescale as these firms are both more dedicated to the related technology and have vastly more experience with it.  Yet if firms follow Apple and not Dell, they will likely experience similar problems with new iPhone versions. No one wants hardware problems with any device, let alone a phone.

So, here too, at least until Apple can demonstrate their do-it-yourself approach results in an equally reliable product, the Dell approach (shared with other firms like HTC, Motorola, and LG) appears to be better.

A Couple of Negatives

Like the iPhone, the Streak uses AT&T’s network, which means it won’t work on Verizon or Sprint. On T-Mobile, it will drop down to a much slower 2.5G. So if you are in one of the areas (San Francisco/Los Angeles/New York) that have the biggest problems with bandwidth, you may want to take that into account. In addition, like virtually all of the tablets, it uses Android 1.6 rather than the current 2.2 platform. It is expected to get an OS upgrade before the end of the year.

Netting it Out

The Dell Streak would be preferred by those that use wireless headsets (it is a big device), want a better web experience (for instance, according to IBM mobile, the iPad actually is used more for things like online shopping than the iPhone, which shows that size does matter), a better video experience (bigger screen), for baby boomers (size again), and those that need better typing experience (virtual keyboard doesn’t cover as much of the screen) than the iPhone.  It is possible that some may like these advantages more and are willing to trade off the size, weight, and application disadvantages against those.  Also, it doesn’t have iTunes and there are a growing number of folks I know who really hate iTunes and would rather use Slacker or another service instead. If you love the iPhone (and even with its problems it was ranked #1 by Consumer Reports until the antenna problem, when they pulled their recommendation), this is not the phone for you.

Setting a Better Bar

Clearly, the Dell Streak won’t outsell the iPhone, but my point is that we should have a spec in our heads that is a true ideal rather than one that is just based on Apple (there are clearly things that make the iPhone 4 better than the Dell as well – you can actually buy the iPhone, but can only preorder the Streak.) But if you stand back and think about what you will want to do with your new phone first, you may find yourself making a different decision and ending up with something that is completely different.

I think the danger of any phone being seen as the artificial ideal is that it prevents others from building something that could be better, because they become afraid of being criticized for being different. But realize that if Steve Jobs had copied the wildly popular Motorola Razor rather than the far less popular LG Prada we likely wouldn’t have the iPhone today. Copying Apple, or anyone else that is in the lead, isn’t the way to go and I’m hoping more vendors bring out divergent products like the Dell Streak and HTC Advantage (a huge phone I carried for a year) and perhaps invent the smartphone for this century.   What do you think?

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