Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 18th Sep 2012 16:26 UTC
"Asus has a trio of Windows 8 tablets on deck for the holidays, but the pricing is so high - $599 to $1299 for a hybrid - that it's going to be nearly impossible to compete in the marketplace. We were leaked Asus' holiday roadmap and the slide below tells the tale." If this is for real, Windows 8 is screwed in the tablet space. Nobody is going to buy a Windows tablet at prices higher than the iPad.
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Member since:2007-04-18
Your example misses the point; at the end of the day most corporate purchases revolve around products to run a Microsoft OS/suite. Do they not?
That depends on largely the project. Our project's focus was on activities, not tools, so we chose to go with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Most of the core tools were web apps anyway, so that helped level the playing field significantly (switching from native to web is a trend I see all across the industry).
If microsoft can provide a seamless integration of the surface with the windows ecosystem, then they will have some relatively big initial corporate orders. At $600 a tablet that can do most of what a laptop is used for in corporate environments (e-mail, excel/powerpoint, web stuff) really is a no brainer for a lot of corporate environments.
And that's exactly what it isn't. The $600 model is ARM-based, not x86, so forget binary compatibility. Also Win RT only allows installation from the Windows Marketplace, so your entire existing infrastructure with tons of custom enterprise Windows software is worthless. E-mail, excel/powerpoint and web stuff is something Android and iOS can do as well and for a lot less money. ActiveSync and Exchange integration? Yep, that too. Device management, remote wipe, storage encryption enforcement, password policies - all supported.
I am not saying that the demand will be earth shattering perhaps, but enough to give windows 8 tablets enough momentum to keep growing. Microsoft is a persistent company. It took them what? 10 years to get the desktop gui OS right, but look at the market share of Windows on the desktop.
I'm not doubting Microsoft's persistence. They have always been good at throwing large sums of money at problems in order to resolve them. Any other company would have long gone bust had they so messed up as Microsoft sometimes did (e.g. Zune).
I doubt MS are going to command the tablet market like they do with the desktop, but brushing them off may be premature.
I'm not brushing off Microsoft here - I never said that or even hinted at it. What I said was:
If these leaked materials are accurate, I see a bad awakening for Asus in the coming months...
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Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/15/13 22:44 UTC
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/14/13 18:22 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
You can say what you will about Windows Phone and Windows 8's Metro interface (I refuse to drop that name) - it's inefficient, unpopular, cumbersome, beautiful, ugly, organised, clean, limiting - but there's one thing we can all agree on: it's unique and distinctive. CNet has published a profile of Microsoft's Albert Shum, the man behind Metro, and he highlights what I think is at the very core of Microsoft's problems in mobile right now.More Features »
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Your example misses the point; at the end of the day most corporate purchases revolve around products to run a Microsoft OS/suite. Do they not?
If microsoft can provide a seamless integration of the surface with the windows ecosystem, then they will have some relatively big initial corporate orders. At $600 a tablet that can do most of what a laptop is used for in corporate environments (e-mail, excel/powerpoint, web stuff) really is a no brainer for a lot of corporate environments.
I am not saying that the demand will be earth shattering perhaps, but enough to give windows 8 tablets enough momentum to keep growing. Microsoft is a persistent company. It took them what? 10 years to get the desktop gui OS right, but look at the market share of Windows on the desktop.
I doubt MS are going to command the tablet
market like they do with the desktop, but brushing them off may be premature.