Dell's foray into tablets with the Streak didn't turn out so well, but the company isn't giving up yet.

Apple’s lead in the tablet market may seem insurmountable, especially with last week’s release of the lastest iPad. But don’t tell that to Dell.

An executive for the giant computer maker was quoted in Reuters today saying that Dell plans a new round of tablets later this year that are based on Microsoft’s Windows 8.

“We’re very encouraged by the touch capability we are seeing in the beta versions of Windows 8,” Dell Chief Commercial Officer Steve Felice told Reuters. He added that more announcements will be made about the company’s tablet plans, adding that: “We don’t think that this market is closed off in any way.”

Dell pulled the plug on theAndroid-based tablet, the Streak, last year. But Felice told Reuters that they may reconsider new tablets based on the Google mobile operating system as well.

The tablet market is becoming increasingly important for Microsoft as computer users shift to multiple connected devices, rather than one personal computer on the desktop. In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said recently that he believes tablets will outsell desktop computers in pure unit sales.

“I don’t predict the demise of the PC industry,” Cook said last month. “I don’t subscribe to that. I do believe, given what we’ve seen, that iPad is cannibalizing some Mac and cannibalizing more Windows PCs. There’s many more of them to cannibalize than Macs, and that’s a plus for us. And I think tablets, in general, will cannibalize PCs.”

Previously on GeekWireMicrosoft previews business apps on Windows 8, as iPad rises in business world

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