We had rumors of a Dell Tablet back in July 2004, but of course those rumors stayed rumors. I said then that a Dell tablet was "obviously a big step in taking the tablet to the masses."
It looks like those rumors have resurfaced again. According to GBM reader Kevin Bals, a Dell sales rep said "to look for a late spring release of a Dell Tablet."
They said Michael Dell was very much against the tablet. Over time though he realized the tablet was a gateway into the school for other vendors. For example since the school had to go elsewhere for the tablets they ended up buying printers, desktops or projectors from the other vendor as well.
They also said that Dell usually waits for a particular product to become mainstream and then they look to develop a product and own the market. Dell feels that since Vista will have the tablet features built right into the OS that the corporate world will embrace the tablet on a large scale. The reps said this will be especially true once service pack 1 is out for Vista. They plan on releasing their tablet to coincide with the release of service pack 1 for Vista.
It's interesting that it doesn't seem that Dell's stance on the tablet itself has softened, but rather they see it as a (necessary) vehicle for their other products.
Dell is probably the biggest player in the education and consumer markets, both of which are 1) very large and 2) would presumably gain a lot of benefit from tablets. If Dell had offered a tablet from the start, you have to imagine more consumers would be exposed to the platform and it would already be considered "mainstream".
Better late than never, I guess.