Dell's Tablet Intentions - They'll Pick Up The Pen Come Vista

A lot of people have been waiting for Dell to enter the Tablet PC market, on the assumption that it will help bring prices down and encourage the pen-technology into offices, classrooms and university lecture halls.  Up until now, however, they've completely denied any intention of sticking a hinge and digitiser into any of their notebooks.

A GottaBeMobile reader, Kevin Bals, was talking to a Dell rep at a school conference who spilt the beans on the multi-national's plans come Vista-time...

"I was at a large school convention on Thursday and ran into the Dell Reps for my area. I was telling them about how we use the Toshiba Tablets and wireless Epson Projectors in our classrooms. I asked them if Dell was coming out with a Tablet anytime soon and they said to look for a late spring release of a Dell Tablet. They said Michael Dell was very much against the tablet. Over time though he realized the tablet was a gateway into the school for other vendors. For example since the school had to go elsewhere for the tablets they ended up buying printers, desktops or projectors from the other vendor as well.

They also said that Dell usually waits for a particular product to become mainstream and then they look to develop a product and own the market. Dell feels that since Vista will have the tablet features built right into the OS that the corporate world will embrace the tablet on a large scale. The reps said this will be especially true once service pack 1 is out for Vista. They plan on releasing their tablet to coincide with the release of service pack 1 for Vista."

This would be incredible news and a real boost to a technology that, even years down the line from its inception, still gets regular criticism from reviewers.

A Dell Tablet PC coming this spring? [GottaBeMobile]