HTC Windows 8 tablet canceled

HTC is preparing a 7-inch tablet which will run Windows 8 but it has canceled its plan for a larger-sized tablet which would go head-to-head with the iPad, reports suggest.

The rumor comes from Bloomberg and unnamed sources but it isn't the first time we've heard about HTC getting ready to hop back into the tablet game with Windows 8. HTC has released a few Android-powered tablets before but none of these were very successful in the market.

The report suggests that the HTC Windows 8 tablet will utilize Windows RT, which is the version of the software which is designed to run on ARM chips. This gives you the live-tile interface which is familiar to Windows Phone 8 users but you won't be able to run older Windows apps.

The HTC Windows 8 tablet with a 7-inch screen is still reportedly going ahead and should be landing before the end of the year. The HTC Windows 8 tablet with a 7-inch screen is also reportedly going to powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, have a high-resolution screen, Wi-Fi, GPS and all the other features you'd expect from a device of this class.

The HTC Windows 8 tablet will be facing some stiff competiton. The iPad mini is the best-known tablet in this class and it continues to sell well. Additionally, the HTC Windows 8 tablet will be competing against the next generations of the Nexus 7, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and whatever else other device manufacturers are planning to bring out.

It's unclear how much demand there is for Windows 8 RT, which means HTC will have to do a great job of promoting its tablet. It also won't really be able to differentiate its 7-inch tablet with a customized software layer like it does with Sense, so that will be another hurdle to overcome.