Dell's headquarters in Dublin, Ireland
Dell is reportedly planning to release its first consumer tablet in late 2012, saying it has taken its time to better understand what consumers want in a tablet.
Speaking to Reuters, Dell’s chief commercial officer Steve Felice said Dell has learned from the “hastiness” of other companies that released tablets in 2011 and has better knowledge of how customers view the tablet ecosystem.
“When you are talking about PC, people are more focused on the hardware itself. When you are talking about the tablet or the smartphone, people are interested in the overall environment its operating in,” Felice told Reuters.
“As we have matured in this, we are spending a lot more time in the overall ecosystem.”
Felice said Dell will enter the market “in a bigger way” towards the end of 2012. He said both Microsoft Windows 8 and Google Android were viable options as operating systems for the tablet, but said he liked the feel of Windows 8.
Dell previously released the Streak as an enterprise-focused tablet.
Many manufacturers have seen a lot of promise in the consumer tablet market, yet no one has managed to dethrone Apple’s iPad as the dominant player in the sector. Recent figures revealed the iPad retains 65.6pc of the tablet market.
Indeed, some companies have experienced failure in this market, with Dell’s rival HP’s TouchPad experiencing low sales which saw its stock eventually get sold off in a fire sale last year.
