Dell Chipper About Tablet OS Options

Though he may not have much reason to be, Dell CEO Michael Dell is optimistic about the company’s prospects in the tablet market.

During an earnings call late Tuesday he talked up Dell’s efforts to build slates using Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows 8 and seemed upbeat about their potential.

“We’re still quite interested in Android,” Dell said. “I’ll also tell you that our early work on Windows 8 on the tablet side looks to be pretty encouraging. And so, we think it’s shaping up to be a competitive environment. I don’t think beyond those two that there are viable alternatives that make sense. So there’s a lot of other noise out there in the market that I don’t think will amount to much of anything.”

By “other noise,” Dell clearly means HP’s webOS and RIM’s QNX. But the company can’t license either of those, so they wouldn’t be viable alternatives anyway. Still, it’s noteworthy that Dell says Windows 8 is starting to become a real option on tablets.