Asus Windows 8 tablets prices leaked: $599-1299
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 18th Sep 2012 16:26 UTC
Windows "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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RE[4]: Comment by hoak
by saso on Wed 19th Sep 2012 09:05 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by hoak"
saso
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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