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Dell is finally getting into the Tablet PC market after years of ignoring it. The Latitude XT will be a Convertible Tablet much like the Gateway CX line or Lenovo X61. The Intel based unit will have a 12.1 inch screen closer to the Lenovo line than Gateway and appears will shipped with either a single core or optional dual core CPU.
I had the opportunity to speak at length with a Dell VP while on a flight from NC to TX and I asked him about Dell’s lack of a Tablet back in the spring. His comment back then was that Dell had looked at the market multiple times but had not been able to find a price point at which they could bring a product to market that the customer would go for and would meet Dell’s needed profit margin. As more and more Tablets are showing up in both businesses and schools it’s obvious Dell has got the hint or found a source for building the unit at the price point they wanted.
Although Dell has been hush, hush about this product some news has leaked out along with some pictures:
12.1 inch screen, 1280�800 resolution
ATI Radeon Xpress 1250
3 USB, Fingerprint Reader, 1394
Optional Bluetooth, 3G, Smart Card reader
Vista Business (No XP option, we shall see)
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First glance at this unit it appears they took the best of Gateway and merged it with the size and specs of the Lenovo units. No news on who they are sourcing these from or a real ship date but rumor is they will start taking orders as early as October 30th but more likely mid November with a shipping date of December 10th.