Samsung building a Windows RT tablet, sources say

Computerworld - Samsung is building a tablet based on Windows RT for release sometime in October, according to unnamed sources who spoke to the Bloomberg news service.

Samsung joins Acer and Asus, among other device makers, to build the touchscreen Windows RT tablets running chips based on the ARM specification.

Microsoft hasn't named specific Windows RT tablet manufacturers, although it has repeatedly said since February that ARM chips for Windows RT machines will come from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia.

Hewlett-Packard recently said it would not build, at least initially, a Windows RT tablet, and would focus on the Windows 8 versions, which run on x86 chips from either Intel or AMD. The decision was based on feedback from customers, HP told Bloomberg.

At Computex in early June, Asus showed a Tablet 600 running Windows RT with a 10.1-in. touchscreen, 2GB of RAM, and an Nvidia quad-core Tegra 3 chip. While the Samsung Windows RT tablet is expected in October, Acer has said it won't ship Windows RT tablets until the first quarter of 2013.

Microsoft still hasn't set a timetable or price for its 10.6-in. Surface tablet running Windows RT that it designed and will build on its own. Microsoft also announced a Surface tablet running Windows 8 Pro.

Microsoft and Samsung had no comment on the report of a Windows RT tablet being built by Samsung. Qualcomm, reportedly the chip maker for the Samsung tablet, could not be reached for comment.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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