A Look At Competitors to the Surface and iPad

"Asus and other Microsoft OEM partners have also launched their own versions of Windows RT tablets that will compete with Microsoft's Surface. It's interesting to see the different design approaches being taken, some of which are similar to Android devices currently on the market. The Asus Vivo Tab RT, for example, is based on a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 SoC with 2GB of DDR3 memory, 32GB or 64GB of on board Flash storage, and looks a lot like their Transformer Prime 10-inch slate. The internal electronics are similar to Surface, with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 claiming the lion's share of Windows RT designs at launch. Microsoft's new touch-centric OS handles smoothly on the tablet and performance looks to be impressive, especially with respect to multitasking and application switching." There's also the newly-launched Samsung Galaxy Note II (Android-based, and a so called "phablet," rather than a tablet), the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga (an upcoming Windows RT tablet with a keyboard permanently attached), and the Archos 101 XS.

Comments

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[Bill_the_Engineer]

Why do we have to have the one brand that rules them all?

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[alen]

because if im going to spend $500 or more do i buy the product that has sold 100 million units and has lots of software and developer support? or do i buy the new one that doesn't seem to have a feature to make it better, has almost no developer support and may be killed off in a few months like the HP tablet

It's all about.

[mk1004]

Does anyone really believe that the Surface will end up with any reasonable market share of the tablet market?

Re:It's all about.

[tgd]

Does anyone really believe that the Surface will end up with any reasonable market share of the tablet market?

That's not really the interesting question. The question is, will Windows 8 modern apps, Windows 8 RT and Windows Phone 8 end up with a reasonable share of the market? Because the combination is what will determine the ecosystem size.

Windows 8 will likely, at some point, end up on 300-500 million PCs, like Windows 7. Windows 8 tablets? Who knows. RT tablets? Really who knows. And as much as I like WP, that's an even longer shot. But if a developer says "I can write my software one, against the WinRT APIs, and it'll run on 300 million PCs, 50 million tablets, and some number of phones", it doesn't really matter if Microsoft sells 5 million or 25 million Surface tablets. Especially when people realize "hey, that application I bought runs on all of these... and my settings and data is on all of my devices...".

There's more to an ecosystem than a single device.

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't answer the question. He asked why there has to be one platform. You answered why you would prefer one platform over another. Good for your karma, poor for discussion.

And as it stands, there are already two popular platforms that meet those criteria. A third isn't going to hurt anything, if it even catches on.

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[SomewhatRandom]

Microsoft announced that Office will be available for iOS and Android in March 2013.

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[SomewhatRandom]

Correction: The press release from the Microsoft Czech subsidiary outlining the release has since been denied by Microsoft:

"The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate. We do not have anything further to share at this time."

It's the software, stupid.

[silverhalide]

Nobody cares about tablet specs outside of screen size, battery life, and price. It's all about the software. Is it fast, responsive, and usable?

Is it easy to develop for? Will it be around for a while to justify developers investing in it? Does the company have a history of keeping platforms around?

Re:It's the software, stupid.

[blind biker]

Nobody cares about tablet specs outside of screen size, battery life, and price.

I hear that a lot, since yesterday, mostly from Apple fanbois. I'm not saying you're one of them, just that this "nobody cares about tablet specs" has become an awfully popular phrase as of very recently.

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[Missing.Matter]

Office built in for free
Side by side application multitasking
Multi-user operating system
Expandable storage
More peripheral device support
More manufacturers at a variety of price points and options
More form factors (foldable hybrid, detachable screen, pure tablet, etc.)
Open file system for managing and organizing files
Networking for connecting to other PCs, transferring files, serving media, etc.


Not sure why you're talking about Windows RT with respect to corporate though. Windows RT is aimed squarely at the consumer market. Windows 8 tablets like the Surface pro are for Enterprise. There, the list for what Windows 8 does over iPad is much much longer. (Either way, nothing stopping you from developing your own enterprise apps for Windows RT.)

He asked the obvious followup

[SuperKendall]

You didn't answer the question. He asked why there has to be one platform.

There's no need to answer that because that answer is obvious. There does not need to be one platform.

Then the obvious question after that is, why is Windows RT capable of BEING another platform enterprises would want to use?

My answer to that would be; it can be an enterprise platform even just resting on Office suppot. But it will not be replacing iPads, it will be replacing laptops for some people that only need office (say secretaries or some executives).

Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Microsoft office?