Dell Says Rumors of Tablet PC Are Real

Dell confirmed Friday its plans to offer a tablet PC based on its popular line of Latitude notebook PCs. The first device will be appearing later this year, the company's business product group head Jeff Clarke confirmed in a video posted to the company blog.

"I am here to end much speculation in the industry that there is about our plans to enter the tablet marketplace," Clarke said. "In fact, I'm here to confirm that we will enter the market later this year with a Latitude Tablet PC."

The device is aimed at Dell's corporate, education, and healthcare customers. Dell says it has done significant engineering and design to make it one of the lightest tablets on the market. Work on the user interface has also been done to make it easier to use.

"The technology along with customer and usage models have evolved to the point that makes it right for Dell to enter the marketplace," Clarke said. "We're excited, and everybody -- we're coming."

According to press reports, the device has a 12.1-inch display and is based on Intel's Santa Rosa platform. The company also wanted to wait for Vista's launch before entering the market due to the tablet functionality enhancements the new operating system provides.

Some are arguing Dell's entrance into the tablet form factor market is confirmation of the tablet PC's legitimacy. "Does this mean we can finally say that the convertible notebook is a successful form factor?" argued Robert McLaws of Windows-Now.com.