Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows RT Will Cost OEMs Over Twice As Much as Windows 7

Posted by Unknown on from the backroom-deals-with-intel dept.

MrSeb writes with this excerpt from Extreme Tech: "Good news: Last month's unbelievable rumors that a Windows RT (Windows 8 ARM) licenses would cost OEMs $90-100 were off the mark — in actual fact, as confirmed by multiple vendors at Computex in Taiwan, the Windows RT license cost is only $80-95. At this point, we're not entirely sure what Microsoft's plan for Windows RT is. It would seem that Microsoft doesn't want to flood the markets with cheap Windows RT tablets. At this rate, though, we would expect the cheapest Windows RT tablets to hit the market at around $600, with top-spec models (if they exist) in the $800-900 range — well above Android tablets or the iPad. We can only assume that Microsoft doesn't want to go head-to-head with iOS and Android, instead trying to stake out a position at the top end of the market. Whether this is a good plan, with x86 tablets and their full 20-year PC ecosystem also vying for market share, remains to be seen." For comparison, sources say that Windows Phone 7 ran OEMs the equivalent of $30 per device, and Windows 7 for desktops around $50.

21 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. Good news for AAPL investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The iPad still has nothing to worry about. Does Microsoft secretly hold a ton of Apple stock? Are they just trying to make money by driving it up and then selling it?

    1. Re:Good news for AAPL investors by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This will not work that way, the OEM will use lower quality tablet parts if they have to pay more for the OS. They will do this to get a competitive price and a reasonable profit margin. There are quite a few good android tablets out there, Samsung, Acer and Asus just off the top of my head all make more than one. Plus there is the fire and the nook for the lower end but still quite nice devices.

    2. Re:Good news for AAPL investors by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I can understand that MS doesn't want 'Windows RT' associated with the sort of hardware that floats around on the dodgy end of the Android spectrum, it seems like pricing the software license as they have isn't an obviously helpful way to do that.

      If the OEM has to make a price point, because their customers or sales network says so, the money spent on software licenses will come out of something else(or, since Windows for x86 is apparently cheaper, simply cut a bloody swath through ARM devices and lead Intel to sell a bunch of Atoms...), which won't help hardware quality much.

      Given that they maintained a relatively iron grip over 'approved' specs for Windows Phone licencees(you either built the handset within certain parameters, or you didn't get a license, period.) it seems like that already have a template for a much better way to ensure uniform quality and a consistent experience.

      With this pricing strategy(along with the 'Ha Ha, no AD for you, not even with some sort of premium SKU" thing), one just gets the impression that they don't really want to sell this particular product...

    3. Re:Good news for AAPL investors by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > one just gets the impression that they don't really want to sell this particular product...

      I think you are confused by trying to understand behavior that doesn't appear to make sense. Usually means we are missing part of the decision process. So lets toss theories around until one makes sense.

      Here is mine. Microsoft has a couple of long term problems. They have a monopoly on the desktop. It produces a shedload of cash. How much per unit is a secret somehow, odd that a large publicly traded corporation's flagship revenue stream's details are a closely guarded secret. (just an aside that may be significant) They fear the desktop might not stay so important and produce the revenue. But they have a second, equally important problem. They can't even stay the same, they have around 90% of the market and PC sales are flat, shareholders have been waiting patiently for a decade to see some share appreciation on MSFT and there doesn't appear to be a lot of upside on the Windows PC. They see Linux as a threat and we know shutting off the oxygen supply is a tactic that has worked for them. The open PC is the air supply.

      So Windows RT is designed to address all those needs. It answers the threat to the platform. It will produce Apple like per unit revenue which will make the pension fund managers smile. And it ends the Linux threat by carefully locking the platform and keeping a very tight leash on the OEMs.

      The question is whether the marketplace will allow them to get away with it. A lot of people have wanted to make insanely great margins on consumer electronics. Only one has succeeded. The chains are even questionable, phone vendors are removing them, not building stronger ones.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    4. Re:Good news for AAPL investors by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually I would think it would be a better score for AMD than for Intel, as most tablets i've seen were used for portable PMPs and the AMD C and E series Bobcats are frankly perfect for that niche, much better than Atom now that Intel killed ION.

      As for the product itself...WHAT...THE...FUCK...I used to make Vista comparisons but now that I've been playing with Win 8 CP for awhile at the shop, I have to wonder if it isn't actually the next MS Bob. How can a company that is so famous for using focus groups out the ass suddenly come up with such a poorly designed product from the user perspective? want to see how the average user fares on Win 8? Here see for yourself and I can tell you that in my shop? that's the perfectly typical reaction, followed by frustration and them walking away.

      If the reports are accurate and Win8RT has no more support for AD and GPOs than an iPad I honestly can't see how it can do any better in that market as it doesn't really seem to follow tablet UI conventions either, its just not very intuitive or naturally discoverable. Charging premium prices when they couldn't give away WinPhone just cranks the WTF? knob to 11, as why would companies like Asus bend over backwards and pay crazy prices for an unproven product when they can get Android which IS a proven product, for free?

      That is why I have to make comparisons to MS Bob, because like Bob not only is the UI nothing like what folks are expecting (and at least in my shop are wanting) but I just can't see who the market this is supposed to be for. Its not business, as no AD makes it not any better than the more popular iPad, its not consumers who find it unintuitive, its not high end ARM tablet buyers as Asus with Transformer and Apple with iPad 3 seem to have that market covered, so who? people who want their tablet to LOOK like their desktop OS but not actualy run the same programs on the two? Its just a head scratcher.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems that Linux will finally get a chance.

    1. Re:Nice! by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No it will just go to Apple and Android (Some people count Android as Linux, others do not)...

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Nice! by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To be fair though, OS X is a very heavily modded Unix based system that is a pretty far ways away from any *nix, aside from a handful of terminal commands.

      It *is* certified Unix though, despite what people say. At least, it was - I'm not sure if the more recent releases have been technically certified, but the kernel and BSD layers haven't changed drastically.

  3. What is Microsoft thinking? by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they're basically screwing up the desktop experience on Windows 8 in favor of tablets and smartphones, and on top of that they're pricing it so high that it won't have any reasonable chance of success in the market they want.

    I'm betting that Steve Ballmer will be out the door by the time all this is over.

    1. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by hmmm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree. They appear to be betting the company on Windows 8 in an attempt to capture the market for touch enabled devices, and are willing to risk alienating millions of their customers as a consequence. Why they wouldn't follow through on that strategy by all but giving away the RT licenses is beyond me. Windows 8 makes it clear that they are not willing to settle on becoming merely niche players in this market, whereas high pricing on licenses seems to indicate the reverse.

      Perhaps we have two parts of the company engaging in competing strategies, in which case responsibility for the mess would fall very squarely on Ballmer and senior management who should be setting the overall company strategy.

    2. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it is more of a cautious approach to entering the market. Price the OS, so that it will only be included on the high end Tablets (ones with faster processors and more memory) So when these go on the market they run very well and smooth. You don't want bad reviews out of the starting gate because the starting tables are just running of the systems minimum specifications.

      The problem with this argument is that WinRT will never even get "out of the starting gate" if the first devices are so grossly overpriced. This isn't a new market; Microsoft has to compete with Apple and Google, both of which have substantial installed bases. Apple, in particular, already has the premium tablet market sewn up, while Google's Android is found on a very wide array of devices and can be implemented at a very low price due to lack of licensing costs.

      Microsoft has to seriously consider, from the customer's perspective, why anyone would choose a WinRT tablet over an iPad 3. The iPad 3 is $629 for the least expensive model with 3G/4G capability. WinRT tablets are going to be considerably more expensive. The iPad 3 has a premium name, massive installed software base, and Retina Display. The WinRT tablet won't have any of these things. What's more, you will get some customers who think because it's called "Windows 8" that it can run normal Windows software, and they aren't going to be very happy when they find out that this is not true.

      The whole Windows 8 project is shaping up to be a failure greater even than Vista.

    3. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by Grayhand · · Score: 4, Funny

      So they're basically screwing up the desktop experience on Windows 8 in favor of tablets and smartphones, and on top of that they're pricing it so high that it won't have any reasonable chance of success in the market they want.

      I'm betting that Steve Ballmer will be out the door by the time all this is over.

      I'm not saying I agree that Ballmer will be out soon but apparently they have removed all chairs from his office.

    4. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sure, Microsoft will survive on the desktop and on "classic" laptops. Windows 7 is good enough to keep them in business for those types of device, even if Windows 9 takes another five years to produce. Windows 7 will just become the new XP.

      But for touchscreen devices, Windows 7 is not fun to use as it is. Neither are most existing Windows applications. So Windows 8 (RT) starts from a difficult position and I could imagine the pricing as described is the final nail in its coffin.
      Which would give iOS and Android time until Windows 9 to get even more entrenched on smartphones and tablets. That cannot be good for Microsoft.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    5. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by Sir_Sri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's possible they realize the folly of Windows RT and are trying to make it possible but not probable.

      It's not really clear who windows RT is actually going to be good for. It's clear who it's aimed at. But if the whole plan is to have a single windows 8 family why the hell would you buy the ugly incompatible step child of the family? That doesn't mean windows RT will be bad, or won't behave exactly the same from a user perspective as x86/IA64, at least until they go to install software and find out nothing works. But for a tablet the whole advantage of windows is that it runs windows software, if it's not going to run windows software... why would you want it?

      The fact that intel and AMD haven't really kicked into gear for mobile has hurt microsoft a lot. There should be x86 phones running well... actual windows. And there should have been for 5 or 6 years at this point. I have a 6 year old touch and pen enabled windows XP tablet that behaves pretty much exactly as you'd expect a touch device to, other than the whole having a fold out keyboard because it's a convertible laptop, and I have a touch enabled windows vista HP laptop thats about 4 years old that's the same deal.

      I'm still struggling to figure out what Windows RT is aimed at. Maybe it's for emerging markets and developers for emerging markets? It's possible they want regular windows as the main product line in rich countries, and poor ones that only get arm devices to have a cheap edition? Selling a cheap tablet to compete on price with the iPad in any market is a stupid plan if there's no software for it, which seems to be what windows RT would be, that's just going to make millions of customers angry, fast. Making a shitty product more expensive doesn't make it a better product, but it might make manufacturers think twice about trying to stuff it in every pile of bad hardware they can shovel out the door. But as you say... who whole strategy seems internally inconsistent.

    6. Re:What is Microsoft thinking? by symbolset · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When Vista launched there was no heir apparent. Now there are two.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
  4. Office included by robmv · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't Office included on Windows RT? I think that is the reason of that higher price, some big corporations have so disconnected divisions that each one demands their cut to meet their yearly quota and do not see the big picture

  5. Stupid if true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this news is accurate, then Microsoft is fairly stupid and we can be happy about it.

    They should license Windows RT for 10$, maximum 20$, and target the extreme low-cost segment. Heck, they should consider giving it away for free (for the time being). There is just no way a company can get a reasonable piece of the mobile market cake with their own proprietary operating system on the basis of primarily targeting high-end devices.

    Luxury customers are rare and Apple's quasi-monopoly is hard to break, especially not by Microsoft whose design decisions have historically always been dominated by completely tasteless marketing managers. Anyway, cheap masses is what wins in the long run, see PC vs. Apple.

  6. iPad has nothing to worry about by erp_consultant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $600 - $900 for a Windows tablet? Really? Good luck with that one Ballmer. Look - Apple is a premium brand so they can get away with charging what they do for the iPad. The android tablets are priced at a discount to that, presumably because the OS is free but also because the quality of components is not quite as good. On the ones I've used the touch screens don't seem to be quite as responsive as the iPad. In any case, where does this leave the Windows tablets? Selling at a premium to the iPad? I don't think so.

  7. Re:Lol... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not a tablet, it's a 'touch-enabled blade chassis'...

  8. "touch enabled devices" by DarthVain · · Score: 4, Funny

    Touch enabled devices does not mean specifically tablets or phones. MS has long seen their demise and plans to corner the touch enabled coffee table market. Truly they are visionaries!

  9. Re:Windows RT is like iOS by JMJimmy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I predict Windows 8 will be the largest clusterfuck yet and the walled garden approach will backfire on them in the most spectacular way.