Dell and Baidu Form Tablet, Smartphone Alliance

From DailyTech: In the realm of deals that seem technically sound on paper, but are uncertain when it comes to execution, Dell Inc. has entered an alliance with Chinese internet giant Baidu, Inc. to produce tablets and smartphones.

Much like rival Hewlett-Packard Comp., Dell has struggled to find the success in the mobile devices market that it enjoyed in the PC market. In fact, just days before HP's highly publicized decision to discontinue the TouchPad, Dell quietly discontinued its Streak 5 tablet (August 15), posting a page proclaiming, "Goodbye, Streak 5. It's been a great ride."

Interestingly, Dell's decision to kill the Streak apparently doesn’t apply to the Chinese market. In fact, the Streak 5 is expected to be its first Baidu-branded smartphone to hit the market. A Dell spokeswoman stated, "We have a partnership with Baidu and you know we have the Streak 5 tablet, so the partnership will be in that space."

Over the summer Dell launched a 10-inch Streak exclusively in China, skipping the U.S. and European markets. While Dell still maintains the Dell Streak 7 (inch) tablet and the Venue (Android) and Venue Pro (Windows Phone 7) smart phones in the U.S., the company seems more focused on winning over the lucrative Chinese market.

China has an estimated 906+ million mobile phones in operation, making it nearly three times as big a market as the United States.

Apple, Inc. has seen a great deal of success in China with its iPad and iPhone, which are viewed as status symbols among Chinese professionals and youth. One Chinese youth even sold his kidney to purchase an iPad.

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