Dell takes wraps off 7in Streak tablet

Dell said his firm will invest $100bn in China over the next 10 years

SAN FRANCISCO: Dell took to the OpenWorld 2010 stage on Wednesday with some bullish predictions about its performance this year, as well as showing off its next tablet device.

Chief executive Michael Dell gave a sneak peak of a 7in Streak, which he touted as an enterprise tablet, offering secure enterprise email, plus the usual video and Android apps.

Although shots of the 7in model leaked onto the web earlier this year, this is the first time it has been officially unveiled by Dell.

No availability or pricing details were given for the new version. Dell launched a 5in model earlier this year, which is currently available in Europe and via Dell.com. It will be available in the US in Best Buy stores from October.

Later on Wednesday, Dell showed a Streak running Android 2.2 Froyo, making it likely the 7in model will ship with the latest version.

Also at OpenWorld, Michael Dell announced that he expected to see a 20 per cent growth in the firm’s overall business this year, bringing in total revenue of $60bn. Much of this growth will be down to Dell’s storage, server and services divisions, which has doubled in size this year.

Dell is also focusing on new markets for further growth, and expects to invest $100bn in China over the next decade.

Another key area for the firm is around the expected data explosion. In 2010, 1.2 zettabytes (ZB) – which equates to 1.1 trillion gigabytes – of data will be generated. By 2020, this will rise to 35ZB. This will lead to a trend for more x86 servers to power the web and allow for the required scale, Dell said.

“Scale-out is evolving to support the backbone of IT,” he explained. “This is the future of the datacentre.”

Dell added that 41 per cent of x86 servers in the US today are provided by the firm, while new products such as the Viking server will add more options for customers. This runs the Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (Lamp) stack, is designed for highly distributed applications and offers four times better rack density than typical systems, Dell said.

Although Dell has a history of OpenWorld appearances, Oracle’s purchase of Sun puts the two firms increasingly at odds with each other. Dell reminded the audience that the firm has partnered with Oracle since 1995, and that a growing number of customers are choosing Oracle on Dell.

However, as both firms are going after the high-end server markets, with Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic launches this week, so Dell’s annual appearance might not last forever.