Bill Gates Backs Microsoft's Surface Tablet Solo Venture
Windows 8 tablets will replace the desktop, says Bill Gates.
Former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates knows exactly why the company seemingly punched its partners in the gut with the introduction of the Windows 8-powered Surface tablet. Even more, he thinks Microsoft has done the right thing by going solo, and that Windows 8 is going to kill the traditional PC. Whoa.
Bill Gates made this revelation on Charlie Rose Monday night as he talked about Microsoft's decision to make its own tablet. As previously reported, Surface will arrive in two flavors: x86-based featuring Windows 8 Pro, and ARM-based using Windows RT. It will feature a unique cover that also serves as a super-thin keyboard, and go head to head with other Windows 8 tablets manufactured by HP, Dell, Asus, Lenovo and others.
"I actually believe you can have the best of both worlds," he said. "You can have a rich eco-system of manufacturers and you can have a few signature devices that show off, wow, what's the difference between a tablet and a PC?"
To Microsoft's defense, Google is taking the same route with its Nexus 7 tablet and the other "Google Experience" tablets planned in the near future. These will be "signature" devices offering the best of what Google has to offer while manufactured by one of its top-tier manufacturers. However these devices will be competing not only with Amazon's Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad, but all the other Android tablets on the market.
As for Bill Gates' vision of the future, he openly admitted that Windows 8 tablets will replace the traditional PCs. Is he right? After all, All-In-One PCs seem to do well in the general consumer market. They're not as thin as tablets, but they're more compact than the traditional desktop and typically sport touchscreens. Maybe it will be this specific sector that tablets while annihilate first.
"You can get everything you like about a tablet, everything you like about a PC, all in one device. That should change the way people look at things," he said.
I agree with you 110%. however, the average consumer seem to want gaming to move to "specialized" consoles. desktop PCs is going down the road of becoming a specialty item for geeks/designers/developers
I agree with you 110%. however, the average consumer seem to want gaming to move to "specialized" consoles. desktop PCs is going down the road of becoming a specialty item for geeks/designers/developers
It's extremely unlikely there will ever be a tablet with a GPU powerful enough to satisfy an enthusiast PC gamer. However, given the plethora of console ports that don't demand much from the hardware (aside from their inefficiencies), it's entirely possible that we'll see future tablets running games that really are comparable to consoles.
As far as the 10" screen and no mouse, that's what output ports are for.
unless a tablet that can stream via cloud to bigger screens with outputs for mouse and keyboard on the tablet.
There is no limit to progress.
Have you heard of MSI GUS II? It can hold a pretty decent graphic card and play Battlefield at 1080 on Medium. One day, you can put your GTX 690 into one and be able to do the same thing. This is done through thunderbolt and bandwidth will increase making it easier. Some tablets are including thunderbolt ports for future use.
Sure "one day" you will be able to pack so much CPU and GPU into a tablet that it will be able to game and will be connected wirelessly to the tv of the future. I can see that being true. It might take 20-25 years for that to come about though.
At that point the box PC will probably stop to exist except as a high end specialty product for people who really need what today would be a super computer.
(kalvis is linking a Bill Gates interview here. -Mod)
honestly, i find no significant issue in a x86 surface tablet over a laptop. (when im on the go, all i need is the web.
the one thing i really hope surface tablets have usb ports. chances are, being a media buff, a internal ssd isnt going to do me justice.
Somebody needs to make a really slick Linux that just crushes Windows in ability all around. Ubuntu just isn't it. It needs to be a lot slicker than that. Slicker than MacOS too. Someone please make a killer OS to kill off Microsoft once and for all!