Dell confirms rumors, will build tablet PC

Dell confirmed Friday that it will sell a tablet PC before the end of year.

Jeff Clarke, senior vice president and general manager of Dell's business product group, made the announcement in a short video posted to the company's Direct2Dell blog.

"I'm here to end much speculation in the industry about our plans in the tablet marketplace," says a casually attired Clarke, while holding the tablet. The device will be a Latitude tablet PC designed specifically for the education, health care and corporate markets, he said.

On the video, Clarke gives a brief demo and offers a few details. It will be one of the lightest tablets on the market and will have a pen and touch-screen interface. He demonstrates how it will open like a notebook, and will have a screen that twists and shuts to become a tablet.

Intel and Motion Computing recently announced a slate-style tablet PC specifically for the health care field. It will be priced at just over $2,000.

[kikuyama]

Tablet for college students will be the next IPOD

I have alot of notes in powerpoint format and I download my notes and cut and paste notes on to my word programs. This way I dont have to carry my 4" textbooks around! It would be great to have a compact, lightweight, tablet that is affordable to the college student so that it can primarily used to read my notes, and perhaps with a cardstorage. Oh and yes, to have my music available on it too!

[TonyDinTX]

Finally...

I've rarely been separated from my IBM/Lenovo X41 for just over two years. No technical problems to speak of. I've been the envy of many and the goat of security professionals (we all understand the difficulty of securing WiFi connections). The functionality (e.g. it vastly reduces the need for carrying around hardcopy documents and notepads) outweighs my need for horsepower since I also keep a desktop at work and home. I just hope Dell can live up to the reliability I've seen in the X41.