AT&T to sell Asus VivoTab RT, Samsung ATIV Smart PC Windows 8 tablets for its 4G LTE network

Mobile carriers have tried selling netbooks with cellular service in the past, and the same carriers have bundled tablets and 4G service for iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs (among others), but AT&T's latest effort is the most notable in some time. The company announced yesterday that it will be offering a pair of Windows 8 tablets when the new OS is launched at the end of the month. (It also announced a handful of Windows Phone 8 models like the Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8x.)

In particular, AT&T will sell the Asus VivoTab RT, built around the consumer-friendly Windows RT flavor, and the Samsung ATIV Smart PC, which will include a full version of Windows 8. The Asus is touted as "the first quad-core Windows RT 4G LTE tablet," thanks to its Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, and includes 32GB of storage and a 10.1-inch Super IPS touch-screen. Like other Windows RT tablets, it includes the cut-down RT version of Microsoft Office 2013. Engadget provides other specs: 0.33-inch thickness, 1.1-pound weight, and 2GB of internal RAM. 

The ATIV Smart PC is a bigger beast, with an 11.6-inch display (with 1,366x768 resolution, according to Engadget), 64GB of storage, Intel Clover Trail 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and a detachable keyboard dock. It comes with a full version of Office 2013, as competing Windows 8 slates will, and can also take advantage of AT&T's LTE network.

Of course, AT&T hasn't provided those important little details like pricing and availability, though it says the two new Windows tablets will be on sale for the holiday shopping season. Whether consumers will flock to AT&T's retail locations to scoop them up remains to be seen. Would you buy a Windows 8 tablet from a mobile carrier? Let us know in the Talkback section below.