If Microsoft really plans to get into the mobile space(and Win8 is all about tablets) this is not the way to do it. $600 bucks for a tablet isn’t going to fly when Andriod and Ipads are already established with superior featuresets already.
For a while there it seemed that Microsoft was going to do something spectacular which was going to give Android and Apple a real kicking and establish itself as a leader in the tablet market.
The rumour had been that Vole was going to release a subsidised Windows RT tablet for about $300 which was practically a giveaway. While this would anger hardware makers, it would establish Microsoft’s new operating system and lead to the company becoming a leader in the mobile market.
Unfortunately the rumour was based on the assumption that Microsoft would use common sense and its piles of money to make itself relevant again.
According to Extreme Tech, the rumour mongers had forgotten that Microsoft is a huge elephant of a corporation ruled by competing factions and overseen by Steve Ballmer. So far it has yet to come up with anything that is responsive or innovative to push itself into the mobile market.
Now, a leak has confirmed that Microsoft’s inability to come up with a decent business plan to deal with mobile is about to snatch another defeat from the jaws of victory.
A leaked slide from Asus says that its Vivo Tab RT, due to be released alongside Windows RT at the end of October, will start at $600.
This is more expensive than the iPad 3, and a full $200 more than the iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. So to be competitive it should have some insane hardware specs – right?
Er, no. The Vivo Tab RT has a low-res 10.1-inch 1366×768 IPS display, quad-core Tegra 3 SoC, 2GB of RAM, NFC, 8-megapixel camera… and that’s about it.
Basically it is the Android Transformer which can be plugged into a keyboard/battery dock for an extra $200 and a docking station only costs $150.
Microsoft is assuming that people will buy the tablet because it has Windows RT on it. This attitude is rather arrogant because it forgets that people are doing rather nicely thank-you-very-much with their Android machines and do not really need Windows.
Vole is basically charging what it always does with its licences, and has no plans to relax the “Windows Tax” to push itself into the mobile market.
via Microsoft prepares to stuff up tablet plans – Asus leak shows Vole’s own goal | TechEye.