As you might recall, a few months ago HP released the Slate 500, a tablet running Windows 7. Soon afterward, the manufacturer claimed the device was on back order due to "extraordinary demand," but questions remained about the exact number produced.
Citing a "trusted tipster with a contact inside HP," tech blog Engadget suggested back in November that HP had planned only a limited production run of 5,000 HP Slate 500 units. Neither Microsoft nor HP responded to my request for confirmation at the time. For its $799 sticker price, the HP Slate 500 offers an 8.9-inch touch screen, inward- and outward-facing cameras for video conferencing, a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, and 64GB of NAND flash storage.
Now Dell seems angling to play the same game, with plans to manufacture a 10-inch tablet running Windows 7 for release later this year. Businesses reportedly constitute Dell's target market for the device. What's more interesting, though, are the comments an analyst made to Reuters in connection with Dell's Feb. 8 unveiling event. "You won't see a more widespread adoption of Windows on tablets until Windows 8 comes along," Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies reportedly told the news service.
At this January's Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows will support SoC (system-on-a-ship) architecture, in particular ARM-based systems from partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments. ARM architecture is a powerful presence in the mobile device market, including smartphones and tablets.
Until that time, though--and whatever form a tablet-based Windows OS might take--manufacturers seem exceedingly cautious about Windows 7 on tablets, despite the white-hot enthusiasm for the tablet market as a whole. I'm just wondering how hard Dell will target businesses with its Windows tablet effort, especially since it's already pushing the Android-based Streak and Streak 7.
For its part, Microsoft confirmed Dell's plans but didn't go much further when asked for comment. "Dell announced its plans for a Windows 7-based, business-ready tablet to be available later this year," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in a Feb. 8 e-mail, before referring further comment to its manufacturing partner.
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