While Microsoft is busy preparing to launch its very own x86 tablet in the form of Surface Pro, Motorola Solutions is planning to jump into the game and release a Windows 8 tablet.
Bust instead of targeting end consumers, the company plans to create rugged model for industrial use. This tablet could be used as an alternative to laptops by police, factory works and other such employees that work rough jobs. The company already sells a rugged tablet that runs on Android.
Oh, and by the way this is Motorola Solutions we are talking about, not Motorola Mobility that was acquired by Google a little while back. Motorola Inc. was spun off into these two divisions back in 2011.
Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown in an interview today said that the company is developing tablet style devices with embedded versions of the Windows 8 operating system. According to Bloomberg:
“Microsoft’s applications being ported to embedded Windows 8 is a big deal for this niche market. We’re as well-positioned as anybody, given the scale of the devices we have and the relationship we have with Microsoft.”
All seems dandy, then.
Still, it is speculated that the release will not happen until the second of this year, or maybe even 2014. Which is not that bad once you think about it — the extra time can between now and then can be spent perfecting the device as well as figuring out performance and battery upgrades.
Regular Windows 8 consumer tablets already cost upwards of $1,000, and a rugged one like this for special uses could break the bank.
