Jumping on the tablet bandwagon

Dell just announced that it is going to release a 7 inch tablet in the coming weeks, followed shortly by 3, 4 and 10 inch versions. Similar to Blackberry's decision to go with an alternative OS for its PlayBook, Dell will also do something interesting. The new tablet will be running on Google's Android smartphone OS. I'm not sure if Dell is the first traditional computer maker to move towards Google's OS. Given that Google's foray into devices with the Nexus One did not turn out so great, I believe the company has made the correct strategic decision to allow a trusted name in computers to handle the device aspect of its entry into the tablet wars. While Michael Dell did say that some of the other versions of the tablet would be offered with the Window's OS, it seems that Microsoft is going to have to play catch up fairly quickly.