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Microsoft To Sell Its Own Windows RT Tablet
Glasswire writes "ComputerWorld reports that Microsoft will announce a Microsoft-branded tablet on Monday running the Win RT (ARM-based) subset version of Win 8. MSFT choose not to offer a x86 Win 8 version, which could have given them a performance advantage over ARM-based Apple iPads. A PCMag opinion piece titled 'A Microsoft Tablet Would Be Dumb' says, 'The only real reason to introduce a Microsoft-branded tablet is because Microsoft couldn't get anyone else to make a Windows RT tablet.' No reaction yet from Microsoft's system OEM customers that it will now be competing with."
Looks like knee-jerk anti-Microsoftism to me. Nobody has said the same thing about Google branded tablets, despite the reports Google intends to release one in the next month or two. Moreover, several PC makers, noteably Asus, have already announced Windows RT tablets.
Microsoft have engaged in some sordid business practices, and prior to Windows 7 their desktop operating systems were terrible. But just making up any old crap about them makes you look stupid, not Microsoft.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
That helps clear up the mystery of why MSFT raised the price of RT for OEMs.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
A windows tablet that can't run windows applications.
Yep that'll go very well with your standard windows customer.
You have to make up your mind. Either MS could not find anybody to make an RT tablet, or they will have competitors in the RT tab;let market. It cannot be both.
I am no fan of Microsoft, but I tend to like them better when they are the underdog. It seems it brings the better out of them.
As a network administrator/system operator/analyst/jack of all, I want an x86 tablet please. Why? Because I need a windows tablet in the enterprise that I can manage like a computer.
RT is nice...for the consumer space...I guess. But I really want a windows tablet for the enterprise space please.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
This is ./ , what doe you expect from us you...you...Anonymouse Coward!
"MSFT choose"? Seriously?
Using business and other organizational names as collective rather than singular nouns is more common in British than in American English, but both usages are increasingly acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic. Your objection is silly, unless of course you're complaining about the use of the stock ticker symbol in place of the company name, which I agree is an abomination.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
If previous reports of >$80 for OEM WinRT are correct, only Microsoft can reasonably afford to build low end Windows RT tablets, as the $80 becomes prohibitive software cost for low end tablets (where WinRT will compete). For Microsoft it is just inter-divisional funny money.
How do HW OEMs compete with a $200 Kindle Fire (or rumored Google Branded $200 tablet) when saddled with $80+ OS?
From the post: "...running the Win RT (ARM-based ) subset version of Win 8."
Clearly implies Win RT is based on Win 8, but a subset, since you cannot run legacy Win apps and is missing many other full Win 8 features.
Full Win8 is only available in x86 version.
Why is it that Microsoft can't seem to do anything until some one else does it and it's usually Apple? Apple used a windows environment before Microsoft. Zune came after virtually everyone else had a music player so it never had much of a chance. Now they suddenly decide it's time to get into tablets? FYI there are other examples, just making a point. Just seems like a poor business model to wait until market saturation to launch a product. If Apple launches a TV can we expect a Microsoft TV a few years after? I didn't include things like a portable OS because they have tried that before but it didn't take off where as Android and iOS have done well. They just seem to wait until others take the risk then get their feet wet once the pool is full.
MS doesn't 'make' anything. The most notable 'microsoft' hardware platform without OEM branding is xbox 360, and that's made by Flextronics, Wistron, and Celestica.
In this case, I'd wager they have an ODM relationship in place with some southeast asia company. It's possible they'll design it and OEM it out, but I'd guess ODM instead.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Look, we can all see this will flop, but when it does, can this time the shareholders dump Ballmer?
He makes terrible choices, and that impacts their products. They have talent in Microsoft, they have money, they have a market to leverage, yet time and time again he fails to marshal them.
So at some point the shareholders have to say enough and dump him.
Oh and BTW, the Acer A700 tablet has sold out on pre-order. That's the *Android* Quad Core Tegra 3, with bigger than HD screen (1920x1200), so Windows RT will face incredibly tough competition out there.
If they are about to buy Nokia at a fire sale price.
Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
Doesn't Windows look Really Tired
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
The stock symbol usage seems to come from those who have started thinking the worth of a company whose product you use is not the product but the value of the company. Personally, I think a company that makes obscene boatloads of money is charging too much.
No it is not. Win RT can only run applications compiled for it and not legacy x86 programs. Win 8 tablets on x86 can run the full range of Windows applications.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
... it should have been "MSFT chose" instead of "choose". I believe that was the original complaint.
AXLE GREASE, Down Under, Tuesday (NTN) — Desperate to stay competitive against iPhone and Android mobile devices, Microsoft has released a two-pound lump of actual cow faeces that they claim constitutes a phone.
Windows RT, in development for several years, strips the mobile device down to its fundamental essence: futility, annoyance, malfunction, inconvenience and a socially unacceptable odour. Confounding analyst expectations, the turd is in fact shined.
US mobile carriers hailed the turd as the perfect physical complement to their world-famous customer service. “This powerful product will promote our growth!” said John Harrobin of Verizon Wireless. “We’re marketing them as edible.”
“We think we can really work the brand equity,” said Steve Ballmer, modelling the optional shoulder-length rubber gloves. “Everyone works with our stuff all day every day. They know who Microsoft is and what we do.”
“How about making our customers actually swallow our bullshit physically?” said John Harrobin. “Windows Mobile 7 was my idea.”
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Anyone who can beat Microsoft comprehensively at browsers, phone OSs, and search shouldn't be dismissed.
Personally, I think a company that makes obscene boatloads of money is charging too much.
No. Any company making boatloads of money is charging exactly the right amount.
Too little and you go broke. Too much and nobody is buying, and you go broke.
Projects like the Courier were killed because the MS Office and Windows divisions felt threatened. Microsoft is afraid of having products that do not somehow directly tie into the Windows and Office culture and because of that, they will not have a successful product beyond the XBox and their Windows PCs and servers.
Microsoft needs to dump Ballmer and reorganize into several organizational units like Sony so that they can have products that do not necessarily interoperate and sometimes even fight each other in the market.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Emulating x86 on ARM is impractical, it would be something like emulating the PS3 on a Wii.
That's funny. We used to emulate x86 on a 40MHz SPARC to run Word and similar apps; and that was emulating the whole of Windows and the underlying hardware, not just the application.
A GHz-era ARM should be plenty fast enough to run apps that aren't excessively CPU-intensive; most of the time when interacting with everyday apps the CPU is idle waiting for the user to do something, so there's plenty of CPU power available even with a 10x or more slowdown for the emulation.
"Microsoft To Sell Its Own Windows RT Tablet"
Well it's not like they're going to sell someone else's tablet now are they.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial