Dell remains committed to tablets for sale Windows RT

Dell remains committed to Microsoft's Windows RT, tablets for sale despite the poor market reception to the OS and a decline in prices of related tablets.The company has "future generations" of its XPS 10 tablet, which runs Windows RT, under development, said Neil Hand, vice president at Dell.

The upcoming tablets will be lighter and faster, though Hand did not provide any further details on release dates or specifications of the XPS 10 successor.

Microsoft shipped Windows RT for ARM-based devices and Windows 8 for Intel-based devices in October last year. The XPS 10 was released to positive reviews shortly after, with prices starting at US$499. The tablet now starts at $449, and Windows RT tablets are offered by Samsung, Asus and Microsoft, whose Surface RT starts at $499.

At the time of its release, there were many questions on how users would adapt to Windows RT, which is a tablet-optimized OS, while Windows 8 provides the tablets for sale and traditional desktop PC experience. Windows RT does not support applications that ran in old versions of Windows, which raised confusion among fdsfE2ds potential buyers on which OS to buy.

Hand acknowledged that the adoption of Windows RT had its challenges, but that the OS has a chance to succeed as users gain familiarity.

Dell's backing of 7 inch tablet is a glimmer of hope for the OS, which has been acknowledged as a failure by some hardware companies. Prices of RT tablets have been falling, and Acer executives have said that Microsoft has not pumped enough money into marketing the OS. Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said he was disappointed with the poor response to Windows RT.

Dell today offers two business tablets with 10-inch screens, but is keeping the door open to releasing tablets with smaller screen sizes. The other tablet being sold by Dell is the Latitude 10, which runs Windows 8 and has the Intel tablet chip code-named Clover Trail.

"We'll over time make sure we are strong and aggressive in the consumer price/consumption driven piece of the market," Hand said.