Dell Streak Vs iPhone + iPad

In an earlier post titled “iPhone + iPad = Dell Streak?” I wondered whether I would be able to replace my iPhone + iPad combo with my brand new Dell Streak. I didn’t take my iPhone with me on my week long trip to the US and I must say I didn’t miss it one bit. I did take my iPad along though, just in case I felt the need for it, which I did. But on several occasions I found myself slamming my iPad shut in frustration and fishing out the Streak to do the thing I wanted to do.

I have come to the conclusion that unless Apple does something really fantastic I won’t be using an iPhone again. The Dell Streak worked for me perfect. The large 5″ screen with a resolution of 800×480 is absolutely wonderful. I no longer have to strain my eyes trying to read stuff on it like I did on the iPhone or for that matter any other smart phone that size. Its amazing what 1 inch of extra space can do. As regards its large size, I had absolutely no problem with that. I went half way around the world and came back with the Streak in my pant pocket and didn’t feel any discomfort whatsoever.

The only time I ever fished out the iPad was to type a lot of text. For example, when sending a long winding reply to an email or taking down notes in a meeting. Maybe its just me but I cannot “thumb” fast enough, whether it is on the Streak or the iPhone. So I have resigned to the fact that I will always need a tablet. The real question is which one.

Yesterday I was checking my email on the iPad at the Washington airport and got an email from Bricsys telling me about their new Meeting Point service. The email had a link to a video on their web site. I clicked it and couldn’t see a thing because the video was in Flash and Apple has decided not to support it on iOS. The next email was from a friend asking me to visit www.marutisuzukikizashi.in to check out the new Kizashi luxury sports sedan being launched in India. I visited the site and again could see nothing because the web site was in Flash. That did it. I slammed the iPad shut, put it away and decided to continue with the Streak. This happened numerous times during the past week.

A while ago I had written a post titled “I Love  My iPad But…” in which I wrote:

“Someone needs to tell Jobs that just because he thinks Flash is evil, people are not going to stop using it on their web sites. But then, he already knows that. I can live with the multitude of limitations of the iOS… [snip] …What I can’t live with is screwed up web pages that do not work. I love my iPad, but I am ready to replace it with something that looks and works just like it if it can handle web pages completely. You know why? Because browsing the internet is one of the main reasons I bought the damn thing in the first place. And if it does not do a  good job browsing web pages then I am not going to think twice before replacing it with something that does.”

The Apple fanboys who say that they have no problem with iOS not supporting Flash are freaking idiots. Flash is everywhere. I just fished out my iPad and visited the first three web sites that came to mind: autodesk.com, solidworks.com and ptc.com. I couldn’t see the animations on any of their home pages. I did the same thing on the Streak and could enjoy the experience that the people who designed those web sites wanted me to have. The large screen of the Streak just make the experience a lot better.

I am sick and tired of the self inflicted limitations of iOS and the morons at Apple responsible for them. Needless to say, I am not going to upgrade to iPad 2. In fact, I might just drag along with the iPad for a while and then switch to an Android tablet or something that actually works for me. I know that I need a tablet. Just that the one I now have frustrates me so much that I sometimes feel like driving my car over it.

By not supporting Flash on iOS, Apple is simply digging a hole for itself. Flash is not going to go away anytime soon. However what will go away is Apple’s market share in the smart phone and tablet market. As a hardware manufacturer, Apple’s job is to give customers devices that work for them and not frustrate them.