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Falling Windows RT Tablet Prices Signify Slow Adoption
angry tapir writes "Prices of Windows RT devices have started falling, signaling an attempt by PC makers to quickly clear out stock after poor adoption of tablets and convertibles with the operating system. Microsoft released Windows RT for ARM-based devices and Windows 8 for Intel-based devices in October last year. The price drop is an acknowledgment that Windows RT has failed, analysts claim. Though Microsoft has not publicly acknowledged the failure of Windows RT, there is already growing concern about the fate of the OS. IDC earlier this month said that Windows RT tablet shipments have been poor, and that consumers have not bought into 'Windows RT's value proposition.' PC and chip makers have acknowledged poor adoption of the operating system. Nvidia's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, last month said he was disappointed with the poor response to Windows RT, and Acer executives have said that Microsoft needs to improve the usability of RT."
Even forgoing "backwards compatibility" with x86 apps, maybe, maybe if you could actually compile desktop applications for it it would be a slightly more attractive platform, but being stuck with nothing but Office and what's available in Metro? It just isn't going to live up to many buyers desires or expectations.
I just don't understand who the core audience for windows is any more. Who are they trying to sell to?
Office workers? Great, Windows is a pretty good system for that usage since office workers have admins that can unf*ck their system when they pick up a virus off browser exploits.
What about the 90% of home users who aren't computer professionals? Are they better off with a Windows operating system that comes preloaded with so much bloatware it can make in Intel i7 chip work hard just to boot? What about when good old Mom or Dad accidentally downloads that trojan horse "anti-virus" that takes over her system to the point where it is unusable? Is Windows still a good value for them then? Wouldn't they have been better off buying a mac with it's easier to use interface, bloatware free on day 1, and far fewer viruses circulating?
Gamers of course are stuck with windows since so many games use Direct X instead of OpenGL.
What about programmers? Windows is SH!T for programming (unless of course you are developing windows applications.) Mac OSX and Linux are both far superior for programming. (OSX after all is a posix compliant Unix Operating System under the hood.) Considering how limited DOS was (and, apparently no longer even present in the current windows) programming from the command line in a Unix/Linux machine is a far far superior option.
So if you're an office drone, or a gamer you're really the only two people who still have a reason to have Windows.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
I wouldn't say these things are priced into the dangerously low zone. They're still more expensive than the equivalent Android tablets and right around iProduct pricing. Even if I could put Android on one there wouldn't be a reason to buy one for that reason, a native Android tablet would still be the better dollar based choice.
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They are ok for what exactly? You can't do too much with them.
Kinda expensive for a portable web browser.
The worst problem is that the brand name *implies* a familiar interface and existing software, leaving users extremely disappointed and frustrated when they find those two factors lacking.
MS seems to have an obsession with putting the windows brand everywhere, they are seemingly too arrogant to realise that their brand is viewed extremely negatively by many and only tolerated because in its core markets users are stuck with it or even completely unaware that alternatives exist.
They are like the east german trabant, a car almost universally derided and yet people still queue up to get one because nothing better is available to them.
In the phone and tablet markets, users are not locked in to windows, non windows systems are well known and widely available.
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Looks like you just described my 300$ 2 year old netbook! No wonder Windows RT is a failure.
Tomorrow is another day...
Your $300 netbook uses solid-state storage, has a Wacom digitizer, weighs 2lbs (under one kilo), has 4GB of RAM and runs a 64-bit OS to be able to use it all, sports a quad-core CPU (not "four hardware threads" dual-core-with-hyperthreading, but actual quad-core i5), has USB3, supports hardware virtualization, supports full-disk encryption using a TPM, has a multi-touch screen, and a 1920x1080 ("1080p" in merketing-speak) resolution, Gorilla Glass, and is durable enough it can be dropped from shoulder hight onto cement with no appreciable damage?
Yeah, didn't think so.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
In the enterprise market, iPads and iPhones are everywhere. The reason Microsoft could in theory have won back that enterprise market was providing a device that:
1. Could join a domain and be managed by Microsoft tools
2. Run existing Windows legacy apps
So Microsoft provided
1. An OS/tablet that can't join a domain to be managed by Microsoft tools
2. Can't run Windows legacy apps
So is arguably worse than existing Android/iOS tablets on price and hardware. The software provides less value. And the OS eats up all your storage space.
Honestly, I can't see anyone making an argument for buying a Windows RT tablet.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
and there are people who used old-school Windows tablets that make Surface Pro look absurdly portable
Yeah, there must be dozens of those guys who really want a lighter version of MS’s last failure.
Apple figured out what MS did wrong with tablets for the decade before the iPad came out. What’s truly pathetic is that even after Apple showed them how to do it, they keep trying to shoehorn Windows into a tablet. They must be brain-dead.
Point was, my 2 years old netbook runs quite adequatly, have more than I need battery life, no smuge on the screen, enable me to set the screen angle to ANY angle, can be used on my chest if I feel like watching a movie in bed, can run multiple virtual machines without a hitch, enabled me to create content in HD and fiddle with blender quite well, can play 3D games, and since I do not look at my screen with a microscope, I DONT CARE it is not 1080p or whatever... It does the job quite well thank you. What should I trash it and replace it with something 4 times more expensive?
Tomorrow is another day...
but my surface RT is the best travel computer I've ever owned. When I'm on the road I don't need to compile apps or do heavy lifting. I need to check email, use word / excel and browse the web. So why is it better than any regular tablet? It's as light as a tablet when I want tablet mode but has support for a real mouse / keyboard when I don't.
It's the millions of comments and reviews like this that are killing Microsoft's hardware partners on WinRT. "Loved WinRT - intuitive, responsive, loved the hell out of the OS. Returned this (VivoTab RT, Dell XPS 10, Lenovo Yoga 11) to the vendor because I also bought the Surface RT and prefer it because x,y,z. Four stars for this though, as you might like it." And where do these comments and articles come from? Microsoft's own marketing campaigns, fed by the billions in profits their partners funnel them, amplified by their Bing search engine. With friends like this Microsoft's hardware partners don't need enemies.
If you want to survive as a manufacturer never ever ever screw your distributors. Word gets around.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Microsoft: You keep doing it wrong.
You want to compete in the tablet market? GREAT! I say WELCOME even. There is/was room for Microsoft in the market. Create your own snazzy tablet interface? Well, what I saw of it was kinda cool but I'm already used to small icons and stuff but the dynamic favorites looking main screen thing seems fine with me too. And I loved that you started out by getting Angry Birds ported over to your new platform. But here's where you screwed up.
You decided that everything should use the same UI. Sorry, but no. That's just wrong. A business machine is not a tablet. When putting together documents and presentations and exchanging massive amounts of emails, people need keyboards and mice -- touch screens get in the way. Surely you realize different UIs are suited to different purposes right?
What's more, people were comfortable (finally) with Windows 7. Business had been moving over to it and all that. But you turned around to threaten that comfort with Windows 8?! Sorry, but what were you thinking?! You're scaring the crap out of IT and consumers everywhere! First there's all this talk of "the new machines you buy will only ever run Windows 8 and if you run anyrhing else, it will brick the device" called secure boot or something like that. Then there's this impending end of Window 7 being announced and all that. Convenience stores exist for a reason -- humans love convenience and comfort. And when you threaten that comfort, you threaten the humans. We thought you were humans too so we were hoping you would sort of get that.
Look, I think we would have been more than okay with you entering the phone and tablet market with your unique take on UI design for touch screen devices. You could have put all sorts of money into it, pushing it and it would have been everywhere. And if you just could have left desktop computers ALONE, you would have actually created a much better buzz. "What's this? Microsoft trying something new? Sure, I'll give that a go..." But no. Instead of making people curious and interested, you want to change your whole ecosystem from developers to business to consumers.
Your first clue to back off was heavy developer resistance. There have been times when I doubted developers of Microsoft tech were all that smart. They all just seemed to fall in line with every new language and library and everything. Silverlight? Sure, let's do that. .NET? Let's do it! Seems like a great idea that doesn't solve anything since it's all just WinTel anyway. But with Windows 8, developers are saying "uh... no... this sucks" you should have paused for a moment to rethink things. Instead, your "Type A" personality pushed you into believing the rest of the world is not type A. Really? You think you are more "A" than everyone else? How very "type A" of you to think so. How's that working out for you?
Business is desperately clinging to their EA agreements to keep what they have. Change is pain in business. They are extending warranties and keeping their old hardware too. Does this mean nothing to you Microsoft? Not a hint? Not a clue?
Consumers love their gadgets. But change from iThings and Androids means there is a pre-existing set of expectations. Cater to them. It almost seemed like you were getting it when you started having popular apps and games ported to your phones and tablets. But then you started muddying things up by trying to unify everything.
Microsoft isn't listening and they aren't reading this either.
Advice:
LEAD, FOLLOW or GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!
i love it how the 'geeks' belittle the windows 64 gb tablet's space, while all I've heard is rave reviews about google's 32 gb laptop.
You won't be so happy when you find out how much space is left over after you install the OS.
No sig today...
Microsoft strips a small part of the functionality out of Windows, erects a walled garden around the system, dumps it onto an ARM-based tablet and, voila, a vile, loathed RT device that the critics lambast for being dumbed down and failing to run Excel macros.
A small part? I'd say the lack of ability to run anything except RT-specific software is much more than stripping a "small part of the functionality."
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?