It was recently revealed during the Dell World conference in Austin, Texas, that Dell executive Jeffrey Clarke urged Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to not use the Windows name as branding for Redmond's Windows RT operating system. The two allegedly met earlier in the year before Microsoft officially went with the Windows RT name.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Clarke felt the new operating system needed a fresh and new name. Of course as we all know, that advice fell on deaf ears as Microsoft did in fact go with the Windows branding for their ARM-based OS.
Ballmer reportedly insisted that the Windows brand was simply too important to pass on. As such, Microsoft kept the branding for Window RT tablets which has led to significant confusion among consumers between the tablet OS and the full Windows 8 computer OS. The problem, it seems, is that Windows RT has a full desktop mode despite the fact that it can't run legacy applications.
Either way, Dell is still planning to release their own Windows RT tablet in the near future. The Dell XPS 10 will have a starting price of $499 and will be powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Other specifications include a 10-1.inch display operating at 1,366 x 768, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. The slate is expected to ship by the end of this month or sometime in early January.