Above: Samsung Gloria Blogeee.com mockup

The sources of French netbook website Blogeee.net have revealed to them details of the upcoming Samsung Gloria slated, according to sources, for release in March or April 2011.

This is one interesting device as it is clearly meant to be a member of the tablet family but with a 10-inch touch screen and a SLIDE OUT keyboard. Another quirky detail, as mentioned above, is the Gloria is slated to run Windows 7 which is not meant for use with a touchscreen, which is apparently not as touchscreen friendly as it could be. The plan, according to the unnamed sources, is a Samsung software overlay to better facilitate the use of the touchscreen in the Windows 7 environment. Engadget calls this making “Windows 7 that little bit more touch-friendly”. Aside from the already mentioned specifications we know nothing else about this device as of yet. Even the pictures for this article are mockups.

Of course, this could all be a result of a game of broken telephone and what the sources really meant was that the Gloria will be running Windows Phone 7 which to me makes a lot more sense. That doesn’t really explain the Samsung software overlay portion of the sources’ report but this is all just rumor at this point so anything is possible. If you have any thoughts please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Either way, it does look like one heck of an intriguing device. The BGR put forth their doubts about the device’s size especially when the keyboard is out being extremely awkward and I can totally see where they are coming from on this one. However, as BGR mentioned, the HTC Touch Pro managed to deal with that issue and so I assume this is something that Samsung has already taken into account.

However, because of the physical keyboard this device does not quite fit our conceptions of a tablet and at t he same time it doesn’t quite fit the description of a netbook either…maybe it will be the progenitor of an entirely new category of device - a combination netbook and tablet - one which I am going to dub the tabbook.

Further reading & speculation about this device

Blogeee.net article: in English via GoogleTranslate) [LINK] and in the original French [LINK]

Engadget post about the Gloria [LINK]

BGR post about the Gloria [LINK]

[EDITING UPDATE Wednesday December 8, 2010; 3:55pm]: I, GuruDan, was unaware that Windows 7 DID have touchscreen support built into the OS. I misread the articles I sourced below when they said there was going to be a Samsung software overlay for the touchscreen to mean that Windows 7 had NO support for a touchscreen and that was why the device was going to need the software overlay by Samsung. Upon being made aware via Twitter that Windows 7 does indeed come with touchscreen support I reread the articles and edited this post accordingly. I have struck out the incorrect information above and added the correct info to the article. All added information in the post above is indicated with a ^ on either side of it. Thank you for bringing the errors to my attention.