Dell Planning Windows 8 Tablets

Dell is planning to release a number of Windows 8 tablets and claims that the tablet market is still wide open, according to chief commercial officer Steve Felice.

In an interview with Reuters, he said that Dell’s existing business relationships mean that it is in a perfect position to take advantage of the growing trend towards Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

Hanging on coattails

“We’re very encouraged by the touch capability we are seeing in the beta versions of Windows 8,” Felice told Reuters.

“We have a roadmap for tablets that we haven’t announced yet,” he added. “You’ll see some announcements for the back half of the year. We don’t think that this market is closed off in any way.”

The latest version of the iPad was released last Friday to critical acclaim, but underwhelming public turnout.

Felice insists that the popularity of the iPad could in fact benefit companies such as Dell as employees will become dissatisfied by their standard issue computers and want something with a sleeker design. Dell believes that its existing relationships mean that it will have an advantage over Apple in this regard as the Cupertino-based company’s products have proved traditionally more difficult for IT departments to deal with.

Dell’s last foray into the tablet market was the Android-based Dell streak 7, which was discontinued last December, but it has previously expressed interest in making a Windows 8 tablet. A number of other manufacturers, including Nokia, are reported to be preparing tablets running Windows 8.

Microsoft pledges that the operating system will work equally well with tablets and traditional PCs and can switch between a tiled interface and the more recognisable desktop mode.

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