Dell said on Wednesday it is developing a 7-inch tablet as it experiments with handheld devices with different screen sizes.
CEO Michael Dell showed off the tablet for the first time on Wednesday at the Oracle Openworld conference in San Francisco.
The tablet is just a prototype, said Matthew Parretta, a Dell spokesman. He could not a provide a release date or pricing for the device.
Dell is looking at different scenarios for using its mobile devices, and the tablet will ship if customers ask for it, Parretta said.
The introduction came as Dell tries to make its presence felt in a tablet market dominated by Apple’s iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen. If Dell releases the tablet, it could compete with Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Tab, which also has a 7-inch screen.
Dell has already released a mobile Internet device called the Streak, which has a 5-inch screen and voice features. The device runs on the Android OS.