Dell expanded its foray into tablets today with a new 10-inch Windows 7-based device designed, the company said, for users “who need greater mobility, as well as IT organizations that demand control, security, manageability, and integration with existing infrastructure investments.”
The Windows 7 Business Tablet, which will run on an Intel processor, could be available by the middle of the year (note that the tablet in the above photo is a nonworking mock-up of the machine).
The tablet was among 39 new products unveiled at the company’s Dell Means Business event in San Francisco this morning. They include laptops, desktops, workstations, and a convertible tablet, the Latitude XT3 (a follow-up to the laptop/tablet hybrid XT2).
But the news out of the event likely to grab the most attention is the Win tablet, even though details on specs remain scant and we don’t yet have a price or a release date beyond sometime later this year.
Businesses want Windows because it fits into the IT management scheme, Steven Lalla, vice president and general manager of Dell’s commercial client product group, said at the event. Not to say Android doesn’t, he added, but he maintained that a bigger chunk of the business sector wants to go the Microsoft route.
The new touch-screen tablet, however, will also come in a 10-inch Android version, apparently named the “10-inch Android Tablet,” at least for now. That means neither version will fall under the Streak banner.
