With the touch-optimized Windows 8 soon on its way, you would think that every hardware maker out there would have a big “On Hold” sign over any possible plans for Windows tablets until late-2012.

Of course you’d be wrong, as Viewsonic announced at CES that it is releasing the new ViewPad 10i.

The 10i runs on the latest Intel Oak Trail Atom Z670 processor, and uses Windows 7 Professional as its OS of choice.

The ViewPad 10i manages to wiegh only 1.77 pounds, features a super high-res IPS display (1280×800), has 64GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, dual cameras, 4 hours of battery life, and pre-loaded customized apps and software with touch in mind.

So why is Viewsonic releasing a Windows 7 tablet now when 8 is coming in late 2012? I suppose part of the reason could be to try and attract users that what to test Windows 8 beta out on the latest tablet hardware around.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t expect the 10i to fly off store shelves anytime soon. As for Viewsonic’s new $170 ICS tablet, that’s another story.

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MSI doesn’t want to put all its tablet eggs in the same touchscreen basket. We already know that some ARM-based models with NVIDIA Tegra 2 (and Android 3.0 Honeycomb) are being planned, but it seems that MSI has some “Wintel” plans up its sleeve too.

The plan, it seems, is to unveil “other tablet PCs” at next month’s CES that will be running on some version of Windows and get the power from the Intel Oak Trail platform. Interestingly, there are also rumors that Microsoft could be unveiling Windows 8 at the same trade show and this new version could be more suitable for tablets for Windows 7. It’s not like they’re going to plunk Windows Phone on there.

There’s no word on any more specs for these Wintel MSI tablets, like the kind of storage or the size of screen, but it’s expected that MSI will “adopt a more aggressive pricing strategy to promote its tablet PCs,” a strategy long since used by companies like Acer to undercut the competition. MSI has unveiled several tablet concepts beginning with CES 2010, and others here, and here, although none ever materialized. Only time will tell this time around.

What do you think? Would you buy an MSI Windows tablet if it was, say, $400 or less?

Photo: Gizmodo

[DigiTimes]

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