I am quite confident that Dell does have the goods to back it up and here's why: The device is thin, which means it's probably pretty light too. There seems to be a magnetic lid lock like on the MacBook which is neat, and the screen auto rotate went nice and fast which makes me think it has at least a 1.83 Ghz Core 2 Duo and some decent memory. It has a fingerprint reader but no 4/5-way navigation keys, just 4 standard tablet buttons on the bottom left and indicator LED's on the bottom right of the screen, of which one LED keeps blinking in the video. Just above the hinge there is a round-hole grill which could be anything and if you look closely you can see 2 array microphones to the left and right of that grill thing. By the look of the start button / vista orb the 12" screen has a resolution of at least 1280x768 or 1280x800 pixels and the hinge looks pretty sturdy. Judging by all that we've seen from the first video I'd say Dell put some effort into research and listened to what Tablet PC users want and created a feature-rich device. So yeah, I think Dell will deliver and not just bash the toshiba for no reason. If the thing comes in at an acceptable price this could become the next Toshiba M200/M205 that everybody was happy with. I've got my fingers crossed.

Isn't Dell's Tablet supposed to he available around October? So if I remember that correctly, it would seem Dell is attempting to say "don't buy in August for back to school wait for us" by spreading some marketing FUD

The video seems to be aimed at existing Tablet PC owners. Shouldn't Dell be trying to attract new users to the Tablet PC platform?

Don't get me wrong... I'm looking forward to seeing the real specs and experience that Dell has to offer, and I find the videos Dell is releasing to be amusing in a You-tube entertaining sort of way.

However, from a marketing point of view, I'm annoyed by the previews for the exact reason that James Kendrick points out-- it's very reminiscent of politicians and shady car salesmen. I want to hear how amazing the Dell Tablet is going to be, not how bad the existing Tablets are!

Frankly, I love my Toshibas (R10 at home and M400 at work). I like my friend's Acer, and apparently the Thinkpads are pretty spectacular. Dell is behaving like Apple now with their videos. They're telling people who generally like their tablets how bad those products are as if their decision to buy them was flawed.

--Aaron

What will be even more amazing than a Dell Tablet is an improvementin online support and reliability. At least in my experience with Dell in the past four years it has not been a positive one.

I have no issues with the trash talking as long as they can back it up. I don't mind dell desktops, but dell laptops have always been garbage. They would really have to have something special to convince me. And it just so happens that October will be about when I am ready to purchase my next Tablet...

Dell makes boring desktops and plain vanilla notebooks. Why should anyone believe they can make a decent Tablet PC? Unless they contracted the guys at Motion or perhaps farmed it out to the Alienware team, I cannot get excited about a Dell Tablet PC. Of course, either of those scenarios are very possible, so we'll see what happens.

Dude should have worn a dust mask for all the lead that saw vaporized.

I'm with "enviro man". I hope Dell picked up the guy's workman's comp insurance. He's gonna need it.
Dell has not sold me on their technology with this stunt. In fact, it makes me think they are trying to create "buzz" to mask the fact that their record is of producing mediocre, price-driven products. Dell is to the PC community, what Sears was to the hardware store, their tools were the right price, but never had the features you wanted.

If this is the beginning of something good -- agressive marketing in the space -- I'm all for it. There are quite a few very, very nice tablets these days (including the Toshibas), but no one tablet to rule them all. It appears Dell wants to be that tablet. Also, the very nature of this attempt at viral marketing appears geared at the consumer rather than corporate America, which, if right, might lead to a bigger push in that area. Despite the fact that a significant portion of tablet users are students, there doesn't seem to be much of a consistent push in that direction from the TPC manufacturers, with the possible exception of Gateway.

I'm confused why Dell would only be aiming their marketing at existing tablet users. Such a huge company with a wide-spread marketing base should be aiming at bringing the Tablet PC to the masses instead of trying to win over the small percentage of the market that already loves the Tablet PC (as is the case with just about everyone I know that owns a tablet, regardless of who made it).

That said, I hope one of two scenarios comes true:
1. Dell makes an absolutely amazing machine that does launch with the same level of energy as the X41 when it first arrived on the scene.
2. Dell makes a major blunder by offending the existing Tablet PC-scape and then releasing a poor machine causing Dell to lose it's chance to dominate another segment of the PC market.