back to article Windows tablet price war FINALLY has 'em prying open wallets

Microsoft is, er, fighting back in the UK tab tussle stakes after grabbing market share from OS rivals, although the small victory could be seen as a bit hollow. According to Q4 tech distie sales data compiled by Context, a little over 120,000 Windows 8/8.1 fondleslabs were shifted to customers - 8.3 times more than the …

  1. Stuart 22

    Storming a Dying Market

    Well done MS. Late to the party and just in time for the washing up.

    Seriously folks those cheapo Linx 7/8 tablets may be a bargain way into Win10. Will they qualify for the free upgrade?

    1. Adrian 4

      Re: Storming a Dying Market

      I wouldn't be so confident about them grabbing market share : a purchase isn't a user.

      I bought the WIndows variant of a Asus tablet because it had USB3, unlike the Android variant. I figured I could live with it until I found an alternative OS. It's mostly served to confirm my dislike for Windows 8, and most certainly doesn't count as meaningful sale.

    2. Tom Betz

      A bargain way into Win 10 indeed!

      Over the weekend I finally installed the Technical Preview on my Dell Venue 8 Pro. I hadn't used it much, found using Win 8.1 to be frustrating.

      Even in its very unfinished state (and build 9962 does have a lot of rough edges ), using Windows 10 in tablet mode is a considerable improvement over 8.1 on a tablet. For example, I'm finally able to use Chrome as my default browser, as long as I'm careful not to overload the meager 2GB of RAM on my tablet.

      I really look forward to seeing the features demoed last week show up on my tablet.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Storming a Dying Market

      No brainer really to buy Windows tablets when you can get a proper computer running a full version of Windows for pretty much the same price as Chromebook rubbish.

      1. Longtemps, je me suis couche de bonne heure

        Re: Storming a Dying Market

        Windows PCs are actually down marginally, the growth in PC form factor numbers is because Apple Mac sales are increasing.

        Full version of Windows includes unbelievably tiresome updates, and the option to receive viruses and zero day attacks whenever you like...it sounds like you haven't tried a chrome book for any length of time, you seem to have swallowed Microsoft's FUD propaganda wholesale without checking for yourself.

  2. Archaon

    Linx 10...

    Within it's remit of "it only costs £150-bloody-quid", the thing is damn good. The 7" one is ok as well but suffers from the screen size.

    Admittedly it lives right next to my laptop but the fact I sometimes pick it up the low spec Atom-based jobby in preference to a machine with a decent i5 processor, slightly larger (13") screen, 4x as much RAM and a proper SSD says something to me. I tend to choose which one I pick up depending on whether I want a keyboard or not. If I don't then I tend to favour the tablet.

    The voice in my head says from the spec that it should be shite, but honestly it's fine for day to day stuff with Windows 8.

    No it doesn't have a bajillion pixels and I'm sure it'll explode 5 minutes after the warranty expires, but I can buy 2 or 3 of them for the price of an iPad or a good Android tab.

    Happy days as far as I'm concerned.

    1. pikey

      Re: Linx 10...

      yep and add the case with keyboard on to it, and it happily replaces my laptop for travel to meetings.

      Ok it's not powerful, but it does everything i need for a day job, for tech support and as I mainly do remote terminals these days it works great.

  3. 0laf

    HP Stream 7

    Tried a cheap HP Stream 7 direct from MS. It's going back. Ok for some things but the quality of it was just a bit poor where it mattered to me. Unshielded headphone socket full of static, poor screen with bleeding light from the edges and not enough grunt to stream video although strangely the processor wasn't stressed, not sure where the bottleneck was. Also Win8.1 is far poorer on a tablet than a phone. I like it on my Lumia but it was a schizophrenic mess on the tablet. A fast mess but a mess none the less.

    Pluses were that it booted in about 10sec Vs my 2012 Nexus 7 that now takes about 5min thanks to Google's 'updates'. The OS was snappy and never lagged. Full Windows meant that Amazon's stubbornness to release a UK Prime app didn't matter although the tablet couldn't handle Silverlight playback even at low quality.

    1. Chorotega

      Re: HP Stream 7

      considering the HP Stream 7 only costs £75 from the Microsoft store with Office 365 for a year I think it's an absolute steal and love mine. Yes it's not a full PC experience but I've found it nippy, good for email and browsing and have none of the hardware issues you have (I'd return yours)

    2. fruitoftheloon

      @0laf: Re: HP Stream 7

      0laf,

      re amazon and apps, have you checked out the amazon appstore first? That is how we use Prime Video on various 'droids.

      Cheers,

      j

      1. 0laf

        Re: @0laf: HP Stream 7

        US only apparently, won't work with a UK Amazon account. I'm sure there are probably bodges around it but I'm not overly happy with the performance from the 2012 Nexus any more. Droid 5.02 is better than 5.0 but still pretty sluggish compared to 4.4 and that's after dumping the cache.

        1. fruitoftheloon

          @0laf: Re: @0laf: HP Stream 7

          0laf,

          whilst I have a .com email addy, my amazon account that we use with Instant video etc is most defo a UK account...

          Cheers,

          j.

  4. Eponymous Cowherd
    Holmes

    Microsoft in "Stuff is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it" shocker

    Title, pretty much, says it all.

    1. Archaon

      Re: Microsoft in "Stuff is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it" shocker

      Well it goes without saying that you can't make (half decent) cheap devices if you're slapping on a £60* licensing fee onto each one. Making the hardware cheaper will inevitably make the product flaky and as such the only way to build a device to a certain standard at a set price point is to make the software cheaper.

      That said I think free was a little extreme. I mean I still would've bought my Linx if it was £160 or £155 (£10 or £5 in MS' pockets) rather than £150. Actually it's a 10" device so MS may have had their cut out of it anyway, but I doubt tacking a fiver onto the price of a Linx 7 would be a deal breaker for many people who want a tablet that size.

      As with everything - particularly cheap devices - YMMV depending on manufacturer and how lazy QC was feeling when yours was built; but that's down to the manufacturer.

      * FYI I have no idea how much a normal Windows "not with Bing" licence actually costs the big manufacturers.

  5. returnmyjedi

    My completely scientific method of gauging how popular a device is based on what I see folks using on my train journey to work. Whilst I haven't seen many cheapo Windows tablets, there are an increasing number of Surfaces popping up. Can't tell if they're the newer Pro 3 model or not, but definitely seem more popular.

  6. HipposRule

    Well

    we (the company I work for) bought nearly 1500 Win 8.1 tablets in Q3/4 - lucky old HP.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Re: Well

      when they start chucking them out next month, I'll give you 2 quid each for a dozen

  7. ElNumbre
    Thumb Up

    Connect 7"

    I used Tesco tokens to buy a Connect 7" from Tesco when they were on offer after Xmas. Actual real money removed from my wallet to purchase said item - £25.

    Even if it was crap, I wouldn't be too upset and repurpose it for something, especially as it ships with a USB OTG cable, but after the event, its actually quite nice and usable. The only let down is Chrome blows on a touchscreen and also consumes all of the memory.

  8. Avatar of They

    Wait a second....

    I thought "PC's were dead" and "tablets for the win". Few years ago apparently that was what will happen and we will all be mobile.

    What happened? Oh yeah, market saturation and despite using 'tabs' for everything people are realising they have their use, but PC's are the ones you actually need for work etc. Now PC's are bouncing back? Probably not back to pre tablet days but easy to see the market is now perhaps levelling off to something of a norm.

    All I got from this article is "Analysts are a bit pants".... Shocker.

  9. Otto is a bear.

    Says it all

    "The average sale price (ASP) for Windows tabs crashed in the last quarter to £119, compared to £405 in Q4 ’13"

    It also gives a clue as to how much Windows was adding to the price of the device when compared to a laptop.

    1. Pookietoo

      Re: how much Windows was adding to the price

      I don't think that's the whole story - when you pay for the OS you'll be inclined to put it on your higher spec product, when it's free you might as well stick it on bargain basement hardware and see if it sells.

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