Dell is readying itself for the official arrival of Microsoft’s new operating system after it unveiled a new business-focused tablet, laptop, and desktop PC running Windows 8.
Pricing for the new machines, announced 19 September has not yet been announced, but will likely be unveiled at the time of the Windows 8 debut, when the new machines will become available for purchase.
“With these new offerings, we aimed to design innovative products that inject consumer appeal to systems for business users,” Brent McAnally, director of product marketing, planning and strategy for Dell’s Business Client Product Group, wrote in a post on the Direct2Dell Blog. “All these products are rooted in things that matter to companies: security, manageability and durability.”
The new Windows 8 machines include:
The announcement of the upcoming new Windows 8 Dell machines comes some five weeks before Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch gala, but about six weeks after competitor Lenovo announced its first Windows 8 tablet PC.
Lenovo introduced its ThinkPad Tablet 2 in early August to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its ThinkPad line of business machines. The Tablet 2 is a 10.1-inch tablet that is Lenovo’s answer to the upcoming Microsoft Surface tablet, as well as to the Apple iPad. The Tablet 2 will ship in October after Windows 8 becomes available.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst of The Enderle Group, said early announcements for new products based on new computer operating systems is unusual before the debut of the actual operating systems.
And what a rush it is expected to be as Microsoft plans to spend an estimated $1.6 billion (£987m) worldwide on the launch and ongoing advertising for the reworked Windows 8 operating system, he said.
“I think a lot of these [hardware vendors] are a little worried that their individual launch budgets for their own Windows 8-enabled products will be overwhelmed,” said Enderle. “We have not seen a marketing event like this ever.”
To cope with that approaching avalanche, “hardware vendors are trying to get their announcements out so they don’t get lost,” he said. “This is going to be one for the record books in terms of overall spending.”
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