To start with the Dell Streak is more phone than iPad as it is less than a third of the size of the iPad and has the ability to place phone calls.

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In order decide if this phone has a market we must first know the phones characteristics.Below I have outlined the main characteristics of the phone.

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The Dell Streak is a very powerful powerful phone that also comes with important features such as 3G and WiFi.It's speed, coupled with its 3G/WiFi capabilities and excellent processing power would make it an ideal phone for internet vloggers.

The phone also neatly lays out its many means of communication on one page making it ideal for social networkers and business people alike.this page can also be edited to suit your preference.

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The phone also comes with the android app store, mp3 player, 16GB of memory and allows it to be expanded by a further 32GB.It can also play videos, comes with GPS and a 5MP camera.

The phone costs $549.99 and as low as $299.99 with a two year AT&T contract.

As I have shown the phone has the features to appeal to both Blackberry users and iPhone users alike,and although it is larger than the two aforementioned phones, it is easy to carry unless you have a fondness for tight pants.So yes, there certainly is a market for the Dell Streak.

I think the Streak is a good idea, but not quite ready for primetime. The Droid X is more likely to be successful because it is closer to the size of a smartphone and people won't feel quite as ridiculous holding it to their heads. The Streak and the Droid X will be picked up by early adopters who will help the cell phone and tablet industries figure out what works and what doesn't so the next generation can be more widely adopted. The Wireless companies have some work to do on Unlimited plans and giving users the freedom to use what apps they like. People won't pay too much for a device that is too restrictive as their main device. This is why I won't buy an iPad; Apple & AT&T maintain a bit too much control.

If the tablet is to replace laptops as our primary device...

The future of wireless is having multiple devices hooked up to one wireless account. For the tablet to become the preferred device, it will have to work seamlessly with our smartphones and have size options that will allow people to choose a standalone device that will work as both. We will have the option of taking calls on our tablet, smartphone, laptop, or a Bluetooth headset hooked up to whichever device is in range. The tablet will become more popular for video chat and video messaging as well once the iPad adds the front facing camera in it's next iteration.

Important Features & Advancements to Look For Before Buying a Large Smartphone or a Tablet:

Battery Life & Processors - right now they are still having trouble balancing processing power and battery life. Make sure you read reviews (company/seller claims on battery life are usually wildly inaccurate) before buying a tablet or smartphone! Batteries, Operating Systems, and Processors must improve significantly to make an always-on, media streaming, multitasking machine possible. This also means the OS has to be able to figure out what needs to stay on in the background, what should time-out, how to save the state it's currently in, etc. without eating too much battery life.

The devices must be WiFi enabled so you are not paying for data/minutes while at home or at a Wireless HotSpot. Android comes equipped with Google Voice so you already have the option to talk for free while in range of WiFi. Make sure you look at your carriers policy on calls and data use - many will charge you minutes/data even when hooked up to WiFi if you started the call/data usage while on their network.

Are you stuck with one wireless company or is the device portable to another carrier? Can you use it with WiFi without a carrier plan? Are you blocked from shopping from anything but the Apple or Android market?

Multitasking and Flash - Many things you currently do on your laptop won't be possible on a tablet if they don't allow flash and multitasking. This is another reason I didn't buy the iPad - I like to listen to music while I read an e-book or play games while listening to music or an audio book. The iPad doesn't allow Flash, and I know my mother wouldn't want a tablet that wouldn't allow Facebook games, free game sites like Pogo, etc.

Are there accessories available? Can you get a keyboard, mouse, remote, etc. so that people who don't play games, use complex video/photo editing software, or intensive business applications can use it as their only device? Can you dock the device to easily transfer media or use it as a display?

Input/Output - can you use this to play/record movies to/from your TV (HDMI, wireless); can you DVR shows (cable companies may join in the tablet race here), easily load photos (SD Card slot), attach an external hard drive (USB), etc.

Internet Based Account - If this is to be widely adopted, we must have the option of having an account that is not device specific. If this is going to be my primary means of computing and communicating, I should not have to buy apps I already own - they must port to the new device. I would imagine this will be OS based, Android, Apple, and Windows Mobile will each have internet based data, app, and account home screens that you can hook all of your devices up to. Hopefully there will be an exportable common format so you can switch OS, but that will take a lot longer to happen.

It is also necessary for security. If we are going to do our online banking on this tablet/large smartphone then we need to be able to kill the device remotely if it's stolen and easily recover our information if the device breaks. This means automatically syncing is necessary since so many people fail to back up their devices regularly. Right now a dropped, damaged, stolen device can mean the end of your world until it can be replaced and if the data is only local and not synced to a second offsite location, the problem is magnified.

This is where Amazon comes in - Amazon already has a great model for your account and the device being separate. I have multiple devices hooked up to my Amazon account - my smartphone, desktop, Tivo, iPod, laptop, and Kindle can access any content I purchased under my Amazon account. Most also allow content you've bought to be used on multiple devices at once (my husband and I can read the same book on separate Kindles or smartphones at the same time since they are both linked to the same account). If I purchase a movie through Amazon On Demand, I can watch anywhere, anytime, without having to carry physical media. This also acts as a permanent backup - if I lose my MP3 player, all of the music I have purchased is available to be downloaded again through my Amazon account.

This is also necessary for contacts, media storage, etc. Android has an edge here because it synchs with Gmail, Google Voice, Google Docs, Picasa, etc. Amazon could be a major player if they partnered with Android.

Multi-touch - right now Apple has all of the patents on great multi-touch - others have developed it but it simply doesn't work as well. Hopefully this will change now that Android is being widely adopted. Without perfect multi-touch technology, typing without a physical keyboard won't be widely adopted by non-techies. This is also necessary for the devices to become true all-in-one devices.

I want my tablet to be something I draw on naturally, without much of a learning curve. True multi-touch (with great text recognition) will allow to quickly jot down notes with or without the keyboard to add calendar entries, send text messages, email signatures, etc. Without multi-touch the tablet doesn't understand some of the nuances of handwriting and drawing is never very natural without a separate input device.

Multi-touch also allows you to enjoy music apps, games, photo editing, etc.

Speech Recognition - Android has already come a long way in this department, my Droid can send texts that I've spoken with about 96% accuracy through a 3rd party keyboard app. It's also built into the later Android OS releases for Search and GPS functionality.

With the proliferation of tablets without a physical keyboard this tech is bound to improve to the point that you can easily control your tablet and add calendar entries or type emails by speaking.

This is all coming. Within a few years, we will have a lot more options. There will be simple tablets to be used in addition to a laptop, more smartphone options, larger smartphones for people that don't want or can't afford multiple devices, and a larger variety of tablet sizes so people with different needs can find something that will work for them.

I'm a gamer, so it will be a long time before a tablet becomes my only device, but I'm looking forward to the day when they are good enough to be what I use for everything but gaming.

There's certainly a niche market for this sort of device, but I doubt it'll see any great success.

For it to succeed as a phone, it need to be small enough to be comfortably carried in a pocket, as that is what most people do with their phones. Unfortunately, the Streak is a bit bulky to comfortably do so.

Unfortunately, it's size is also the reason why it likely won't succeed in the dedicated tablet market. It's not big enough to compete with the Ipad, and is certainly not a substitute for a netbook.

Simply put, it doesn't have the marketing muscle behind it to generate the excitement needed to make a dent in the smartphone market, and it doesn't have enough benefits to make it an obvious logical choice for the educated buyer.

At the same price range people can buy a market leading device that has some serious brand recognition behind it.

Why am I not surprised that Mossberg didn't like a non-apple device? I believe there is a market, but not a huge one. It does fill a gap e.g. people who want a smartphone and a tablet but not both.

There are so many niches of people out there that every size should be tried by manufactures until you the customer finds the size that you want. All of these things are just variations on Dick Tracy’s watch.

The trade off is really screen size. Why watch a movie on a three-inch screen, if you can have larger. But why carry around a larger screen if you can do email on an iPhone. If designers will provide us with all the possible configurations then we can make our choices.

I would like to see the picture projected outward larger than the device. In this way we can have a larger screen with a device of less mass.

On the smaller size, the buttons need to be a reasonable size until we no longer use buttons.

I think is a genius idea - especially for students. It's the best of both worlds as far as size and convenience is concerned.

If they have or get Swype on it - it will be a hit with the younger crowds.

From an economist perspective, everything is about ROI (Return on Investment), and how much you can do on a device really depends on the platform it is using. Mossberg says it's more like a large smartphone is probably because it's using Android, which is exactly what people say when iPad just came out, as if it's a magnified version of the iphone. So seriously, if smartphones and these things run on the same platform, offering you the same number of applications, what's the up-side for getting a bigger screen? Gaming and ebooks. The outlook of Streak kinds of reminds me of PSP, but I am doubtful that it has the same games, and as many buttons for control. Sad. As to ebook, and Kindle and such extended markets, if you ask me, I would get the iPad for reading Harry Potter, if offered a choice. A tablet or a netbook, running Linux, Windows, Mac OS, still offers some unbeatable functionality, and practicality. The market between smartphone and tablet is very uncertain, but given that it's such a joy to browse the web using the ipad for those feeds burners out there, it might just workout. But in the foreseeable future, I think it will remains a luxury product.