Foot-long slab too big? Microsoft 'has a 7-incher' to stroke Microsoft will put a smaller, 7-inch Windows 8-powered Surface laptop-cum-tablet into production this year, according to insiders. Shrinking the touchscreen slab wasn't part of Microsoft's strategy when the then-Windows chief Steven Sinofsky unveiled Redmond's own 12-inch Surfaces and similar-sized Windows 8 devices from PC …
If Microsoft continue with their fingers in their ears, yes.
Microsoft have fooled themselves into believing that their problems are because of the formfactor, or the size, or the build quality or price. However the REAL problem as everyone knows, is bloody Windows 8 RT/Windows Phone 8/ Windows 8 (take your pick).
...just make something that consumers actually want.
The problem is that MSFT have been in a monopoly position for too long and have struggled to spot consumer trends. Even the biggest IT consumer trend at the moment (not wanting TIFKAM) is staring them in the face but they refuse to open their eyes and look at it.
They are the high school bully who still thinks he can still throw his weight around even after everyone has graduated.
Wow. You think all 800,000 out of 800,000 apps are awful? If that's the case... you really shouldn't own a device that runs apps at all. They aren't for everyone. (How many apps have you actually used? 1000? You have BARELY scratched 8% of the surface.)
@AC 14:24. Calm down! Some great apps on Android, iOS and even Windows 8. I don't know of an app to help train the mind in application of logic otherwise I'd recommend it to help you understand it is possible for 100s of thousands of rubbish apps to exist in a store which also contains some brilliant examples. And statistical sampling is sufficient to reach that conclusion.
"HIRE SOME BLOODY DEVELOPERS WITH THE SOLE JOB OF WRITING DECENT APPS. Stop waiting on everyone else, it will cost 1% of your marketing budget and do far more good."
Welcome to the chicken and egg syndrome, alternatively go and use a platform that is well supported.
Don't you just love the irony that the sole reason Windows purveys on the desktop is the wealth of programs compared to other platforms, yet the reason it's failing in mobile is the lack of them.
I used to be an atheist but I just think there might be a God after all.
Any studios making Windows 8 apps right now could make a killing. The market's wide open and there's very little competition. Most apps in the Win8 store are free "I learned to make an app with a tutorial in 3 hours" apps that you wouldn't even bother downloading. I recall it being that way early in Android/iOS's lives too, though. So anyone who wants to make something right now that's not just a port of a guaranteed seller or something useless like Unofficial Facebook Like App #58 could easily turn a profit.
Shame I don't develop apps or I would have already gone in and done it.
Clover trail CPU power/performance is reasonably competitive with current shipping ARM tablet processors but the GPU is abysmal. 22nm quad core Bay trail is apparently on target for Q3 and sounds promising if GPU and other improvements are as rumoured but I suspect Microsoft will still go with a nexus-competitive ARM SoC so this will be another in the Surface RT line rather than a full Windows 8.
Could be a great device but going by the Microsoft track record on Surface RT hardly surprising if the first thing that goes through our minds is would be just like Microsoft to announce a comparatively low resolution display at a premium price in the same month Apple Mini goes retina and the new Nexus 7 has already upped the ante for Android.
Devoid of use? The cesspool is the classic source of saltpeter, vital in the creation of black powder. Furthermore, the quality of excrement for fertilization is well documented.
I demand you cease the slanderous comparisons of windows 8 to comparatively useful human excrement forthwith!
>"Windows 8 is what is lining the waste treatment plant near the M40 in Slough. It is brown, yucky, smells/looks bad and is devoid of use."
Clearly, you have no clue how to properly set up and administer a computer system. If you MUST use Windows, Win8 runs circles around older versions. Unless you dislike speed and stability.
I'd buy a Win8 tablet/slab if they weren't so damned expensive. I bought a Galaxy Note 10.1 just after Xmas for £320 and wasn't going to pay nearly double that for 2" more and way less apps. iOS was right out of the question due to Apple lock downs on WiFi Analyzing apps and similar restrictions, as well as the price. Apps and price is where it's at. Fiddling with yer inches just gets you arrested. :-)
I use my Nexus 7 a couple of hours a day, most for browsing a couple of news sites, e-mail, e-book reader, listening to some foreign radio stations in the background, and playing a couple of time-water games. I have maybe 5 or 6 apps that I use every couple of weeks (an RDP client, WiFi analyzer, web-cam viewer, a DVR control), and a few dozen that I've only used once or twice since I installed them, but keep thinking they might be handy some time.
There's absolutely no reason I couldn't be doing all of this on a Win8 7" device (can I play music/stream radio in the backround while running a different foreground app in RT?). But I have zero interest in paying even $1 extra for an Office RT license - it has absolutely no relevance to my use of a 7" tablet. I can't imagine that there is any great demand for any kind of Office Suite on 7" tablets.
A 7" Win8 tablet might be Microsoft's best hope of getting wider acceptance of Win8, but they have to get their heads out of their arses and recognize that they are competing with the Nexus 7 and the Fire HD - and that means a $200-$250 price point. And that Amazon and Google set those ground rules a year ago. You have some chance of competing on function - if you prefer to compete on form instead, and go for an iPad Mini price, you're wasting your time and ours.
RT tablets.
These are locked down and Microsoft have a very bad history of pulling the plugs on systems for anything other than x86/x64 processors. So when they do, there isn't even an option for enthusiasts to keep the platform viable. (Like in the desktop world the PowerPC Mac, dropped ages ago, but still, up to date Thunderbird and Firefox ports are available.)
Apple in the tablet world have a proven record of providing new OSes to existing kit and have reasonable software compatibility between OSes. Why would anyone who doesn't mind a locked down system choose RT over an iPad, unless it were very significantly cheaper?
x86 Win 8 tablets.
These seem to be a ridiculous idea, why would you want a more power hungry and heat producing device in a tablet? Plus do users want all the ongoing maintenance that goes with x86 windows, in a tablet? I think not.
Added to that the unsuitability of Windows 8 for non touchscreen devices, this means the only sensible use for Windows 8 is for Chimera devices that switch between a tablet and a laptop. However I would think the appeal of such devices is limited, because when using it for tablet functions, it will be heavier and have a poorer battery life that a simple ARM tablet. It would appear to me that an ARM tablet plus a (possibly several years old) desktop system would be a better option for many users. Especially since supplementing an existing PC with an ARM tablet is likely to cost half what replacing it with a Chimera would.
They will release a 7 inch tablet but still be pricing it to close to compete with the iPad mini rather than the Nexus 7 or Amazon kindle fire so ultimately sales will be slow.
If people have the choice between paying about £270 for an ipad mini or a 7 inch surface i think most people will choose the iPad because of its assumed coolness factor.
Maybe Microsoft should think about giving Windows RT licenses for free to OEMs for 6 or 12 months to encourage them to drop the prices of the devices and build up the Windows ecosystem, but of course this will never wash with the shareholders
If there is a correlation between the size of a tablet and the sales numbers then Microsoft could be onto something.
Let's see.
10.6 inch = 4 tablets sold
7 inch= 4*(7/10.6) = 2.64 tablets sold
That's like a 50% increase in sales. Not bad.
What?? Stupid idea, I know but it's almost Friday and I need to start training.
"wants to help reinvigorate the PC market".. If Windows Blue doesn't reverse the mistakes go Wi-Eight they face the prospect of IDC, Gartner etc Producing a graph showing Apple taking over PC as well as tables by 2016, its all downhill from there.. Goodbye.
Is there nobody in Microsoft who cares for the company Bill made?
@Eadon
I'd happily shill for Microsoft if they offered me a free surface pro in exchange. Unfortunately, their astroturfing budget is nowhere as large as you imagine :(
Still, any other company who wants to buy my astroturfing is welcome to send me shiny shiny gadgets.
Microsoft are great! (Where's my free stuff?)
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