Dell Readies 10-Inch Tablets to Fend off iPad

Dell is betting on Android and Windows 7 tablets to counter the spate in popularity of the Apple iPad.

Michael Dell shows off a newborn seven-inch Streak Humanoid tablet. Photo: Hartmann Studios

A leaked roadmap suggests Dell has in store deuce Windows 7 tablets and a 10-inch Android Honeycomb tablet for release later this year, as the company aims to grab tablet market share. But despite keeping loyalty to Microsoft with Windows 7, Dell CEO Michael Dingle says Android tablets will one day dominate the market.

The three Dell tablets, detailed courtesy of a presumed roadmap leak to the AndroidCentral blog, are reportedly coif to arrive later this year, with the Humanoid lozenge, dubbed "Streak Pro," as early as June. The Streak Favoring specs list a 10-edge reveal (1280 by 800 result), an Nvidia 1.2Ghz dual-inwardness central processing unit, with two microphones and two cameras for video and chatting, running along Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS for tablets. Dell won't go for a stock Mechanical man UI, but use instead its Stage 1.5 user interface.

The two Dingle Windows 7 tablets are set to keep abreast the Streak Pro: the 13-inch Parallel of latitude XT-3 in July, and the Latitude ST in Oct. The Line of latitude XT-3 will be a convertible tablet (like most pre-iPad tablet offerings), with Intel CPUs, 2GB of RAM, and a stylus, powered away Windows 7. The Latitude ST wish lineament an iPad-like design, an Intel Oak Chase after 1.5Ghz processor, 2GB of RAM, up to 128GB SSD warehousing, dual cameras (1.3 megapixels front and 3 megapixels rear), claiming eight hours of shelling life. Note that the leaked Dell roadmap is along equality with an earlier making water, from the same blog in February.

It's unclear though wherefore Dell insists along making Windows 7 tablets, especially as the company's CEO believes Android tablets bequeath dominate the tablet market in a few years, like Mechanical man smartphones do now. Dell said in an consultation with the Bulwark Street Journal on Sunday almost Android tablets outpacing iPads: "Not tomorrow. Non the future Clarence Shepard Day Jr.. Simply once again, if you consider 18 months ago, Mechanical man phones were like, "What is that?"And now in that location are more Android phones than iPhones. I assume't see any reason why the same won't occur with Android tablets."

Dingle as wel said that in the four years He has been back at the helm of the ship's company, the sudden rise of the iPad took him by storm: "I didn't wholly see that advent. Tablets aren't really early, in the sense that the pill PC idea's been around awhile. Obviously, more new products have been much more successful."

Dell has already well-tried its hand at Android tablets last year, with little achiever, with the 5-inch Streak, a clumsy hybrid tab/smartphone. Marred with old software system, swollen pricing and negative reviews, the original Run was widely seen as a flop. The company also unveiled a 7-edge Streak tablet in January, pouring Android 2.2. Dingle also experimented with a 10-inch tablet/netbook hybrid conclusion year, called Inspiron Twosome, running along Windows 7.

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