Consumer interest in Windows 8 tablets slumps Punters appear to be turning away from the Windows 8 tablets Microsoft hopes will get it back into the fondleslab game. Back in January, Forrester Research, a market watcher, asked consumers which tablets they favoured. Some 46 per cent said they'd prefer a Windows device. Asking the same question afresh later in the year, …
I must say, if I had been asked what OS I would like on a tablet, (in January), I would have said Windows. Not that I don't hate Windows, but because I would need: Word, Excell, PPT etc. I have subsequently had access to an iPad, (errindoors') and it's a joy to use. Simple, intuitive etc. I also use LibreOffice which is pretty darn good versus Office.
If asked again, I would put Windows in 3rd place, behind Aple and Android tablets.
Maybe we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Windows empire?
Sure, consumers aren't going to buy a Windows 8 tablet. I mean, why would they want to? The kind of thing that the average user wants to do with a tablet doesn't require Windows.
But business on the other hand certainly will. That's the market where the Windows 8 tablet will really appeal. And that's where I think Microsoft should be aiming. And they'd better have a Windows 8 enhanced touch-friendly version of Microsoft Office ready to rock on release date. Because THAT will help sell those tablets like hot cakes.
You think big corporations are going to rush out and start deploying windows tablets!
Why
- Because a tablet is such a better tool for a business user then a laptop?
- Replace their desktops?
- Because every IT manager wants to go ask for the money to upgrade to Windows 8 (new software and most likely hardware) in the middle of recession.
- Because every IT manager likes to be the first on the block to find all the bugs and deal with the headaches of a new platform.
If it is still around maybe in 5 or so years maybe it will start making traction. Think I'm crazy - I work for a very large company and still run XP on my desktop.
I think the real reason MS is making this big push for Windows 8 is not the tablet market, but they see the risk of MIPS based servers and they can't sell any software for it.
Windows is often what people are forced to use in their boring day-job. They seek something to use in their own time that is as far away from that as possible. Or so people tell me and I'm inclined to believe that.
If MS ever produce a tablet it will not succeed on just being good. It will need some other "gotta have" angle. I doubt they can pull this off.
I find it a good combination of words. On the few occasions that I need to use MS Windows I find it so user hostile and hard to use (being used to *nix - MS Windows does not work as I expect). So a couple of paracetamol at the end of it seems like a good combination.
It's too soon to write-off Windows tablets and certainly too soon to predict the demise of either Windows or Microsoft - though people have been doing that for decades so why stop flogging a dead horse now?
Pricing, capabilities, advertising, hype and review ratings will dictate whether they succeed or fail, not any fanciful sticking of wet fingers in the air and trying to guess which way the wind will be blowing in a few months time.
Never forget that, setting aside brand loyalty, peer pressure and herd mentality, punters don't so much care what something is but whether that something does what they want in a way they like it being done. If Windows tablets 'tick the boxes' there's no reason it shouldn't succeed. The anti-M$ mob probably won't agree but Windows and Microsoft still have respect and brand loyalty.
MS never rush themselves into a new product. As far as MS is concerned, the big money is in supporting businesses, and they're going to make sure that any slab they push out is going to suit the need of their business customers first.
They'll have to worry about it working well with Win Server, any new cloud tech that goes along with it, and all the other goodies that makes business customers happy with Windows products. It's a far bigger infrastructure than just one product - and it's their biggest failing. They can't rush with anything because it would be too expensive if it failed and made MS look bad. It's like trying to steer a fully-loaded lorry around a racing track - everyone else is going to zip past you because they don't have to carry the excess weight.
As far as Joe Public goes, MS won't care about them. If they buy an MS slab, then great, but there's no money in that.
At the moment having MS office available is the only thing i can see the advantage of having a Windows tablet over an none MS one. But i personally would want to run office on a touch screen interface other than to perhaps edit/view a few documents which i can easily do with documents to go for a lot less cost.
Windows tablets may end up like the linux netbooks were, in that they get bought then the customer realises they cant run all their Windows PC programs on them and send them back for a refund.
The whole "tablet runs your Windows apps" thing is a bit pointless for most people. They already have a laptop and a tablet tends to provide a different use. A lightweight device for running some mobile apps, a bit of browsing and the occasional game.
Microsoft seem to keep making this same old mistake with tablets. They produce a games console and phone platform that don't run full blown Windows software, so why does a tablet need to be a heavyweight desktop OS?
Unreleased software on unreleased hardware, so lets just bury it now shall we? previews count for shit given that firstly its going to change, and secondly most folk dont see these previews, lets also point out that ARM win 8 has yet to be tested in the wild.
The MS bashing has taken an all time low on this one.
Is win 8 a waste of time? i dunno, an neither does anyone else, when the SKUs in the shelves then ill let you know if its crap or not and THEN we can see what public opinion of it is, perhaps it will bomb, it is after all late to the game but we shall just have to wait and see.
Windows is tollerated on desktops/laptops because people don't see any alternative, but they don't usually like it and don't want it on phones or tablets where better products are already well established.
Windows tablets have been around for a long time, and most people who use them end up hating them... They are bigger and heavier than an ipad, generally slower from a users perspective even if theoretically the hardware is more powerful, and 99% of the apps you might run on them are pretty unusable on a tablet interface...In terms of numbers of apps actually usable on the form factor, ipad is way ahead.
i see what your saying but you cant compare windows tablet hardware which in some cases is nearly 10 years older than the iPad to new hardware that hasnt even been released.
all tablet hardware todate for windows is based x86, which until recently were not the smallest setups and were deffinitely not low watt parts. The UI sucked, ill give you that and it needed 3rd party program support to make good use of the screen, which is exactly the same for Windows Mobile, i have to say, people have been shouting about this for years, long before the iPhone and iPad, MS had such a lead and pissed it all away, a major oversight! for that alone Ballmer should go
I do not want a tablet (fondleslab) regardless of who makes it or what OS it runs. I write. I write a lot. On-screen keyboards are not conducive to writing nor are Bluetooth keyboards used with a fondleslab. I'll stick with my old laptop, thank you, and if I can figure out how to resurrect my really ancient Dell Latitude CPi, I'll do it since I really love the keyboard on that old beast. A new screen for $30 on eBay and a decent PCMCIA WiFi card plus a lightweight Linux distro ought to do it.
Note to pollsters: I am talking about full-function fondleslabs here, not semi-dedicated eBook readers like the Nook Simple Touch or original Kindle.
Paris because she sucks as much as on-screen keyboards do.
Yep... between reading this article and leaving a comment, I bought a Samsung Series 7 Slate which was already on my Christmas list. I already have 4 iPhones and 2 iPads in the house (one of each being mine) but I've been waiting a long time for a proper Windows tablet to come out. As I'm writing this from my development PC which runs Windows 8, I'm pretty comfortable with the environment already and like it.
The thing is... this article is pretty much nonsense. At for example my wife's company which is a newspaper, there are 400 people walking around with both a PC laptop and an iPad t all times. They are far more likely to leave their iPad at home then their laptop since the iPad is for surfing the web while researching a story and their Windows laptop is for writing it. Also, they use it for email... oh and AngryBirds.
Keep in mind that companies like Windows for a few reasons... the most important being that it is centrally manageable. The iPads are just a utility which actually are small and light... have good battery life and are fun to play games on. If you combine the utility of a Windows PC with the interface of a telephone, you're good to go.
Apple shouldn't be too upset though. I don't intend to stop using the iTunes Music Store for buying music and movies. I would have much rather had a Core i5 Apple tablet running OS X and Windows. But they didn't see fit to make one.
I'm truly looking forward to getting my Slate for Christmas :) My daughter is looking forward to getting her iPad (hand me down from pappa)
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