Asus Confirms Smaller Windows 8 Tablets, Sub-$300 Prices
Asus Chief Executive Jerry Shen recently told The Wall Street Journal that the company plans to sell small Windows 8 tablets this year. He also expects to see prices for Windows 8-based tablets fall below $300, which in turn should help Microsoft gain more ground in the tablet sector. Windows 8 only commanded less than 4 percent of the tablet market during 1Q13.
"We're very optimistic about sales for Windows 8 tablets this year," Shen said.
Asus has done well with its own string of low-cost, 7-inch Android tablets, and is the manufacturer behind Google's highly popular Nexus 7. Asus is also currently the "low-price leader" when it comes to Windows 8 tablets, selling the VivoTab Smart tablet for $449.99 at Best Buy. However, Shen expects to see prices of smaller Windows 8 tablets cost a mere $50 more than similar models using Google's Android OS.
As reported on Friday, Amazon briefly published a listing sporting an 8.1-inch Acer tablet based on Windows 8 Pro and a dual-core Atom Z2760 SoC with 2 GB of RAM. At the time, the pricing was $379.99, and very well could have been a placeholder since the listing wasn't meant to go live. While that's not exactly cheap given the form factor, considerations for the seemingly steep price include Windows 8 licensing, the amount of internal storage and the amount of installed RAM.
These smaller tablets from Acer, Asus and other ODMs are expected to ship with Windows 8.1, the next incremental release slated to debut as a Public Preview during BUILD 2013 next month. The update brings a number of improvements, and is reportedly spearheading Microsoft's move into the smaller tablet segment. This "blue" update blanket also includes Windows Phone, Windows RT and Windows Server 2012.
During the first quarter of 2013, Asus reportedly fell in third place in tablet shipments, pushing 2.7 million units in that quarter. The company followed Samsung, which sold 8.8 million units and Apple, which commanded the tablet market with 19.5 million units. Amazon was fourth on the list with 1.8 million units, while Microsoft only pushed 900,000 tablets.
"Recent rumors have circulated about the possibility of smaller screen Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets hitting the market," said Ryan Reith, Program Manager for IDC's Mobility Tracker program. "However, the notion that this will be the saving grace is flawed. Clearly the market is moving toward smart 7-8 inch devices, but Microsoft's larger challenges center around consumer messaging and lower cost competition. If these challenges are addressed, along with the desired screen size variations, then we could see Microsoft make even further headway in 2013 and beyond."
In addition to Acer and Asus, Microsoft is planning to launch its own smaller Surface tablets later this year.
Optimistic and Windows 8 shouldn't be in the same sentence.
If they DO start releasing pro tablets at sub $300 prices and they actually work half decently, those will be winners, and in my opinion, far more bang for your buck than almost anything out there. If it's metro though, you may as well go Android unless you *really* want the official MS software suite to play around with.
No matter what type of mobile OS they release - everyone is going to compare it to their desktop product. It's one the pains of having created the defacto standard of operating systems - everything else you do will be compared to it on emotional and functional levels. (See all the kafuffle about the start menu).
Back on topic though, I'm a little surprised that they would accept the gambit of releasing these on the current gen Atom series of processors than delaying a product launch for the much improved newer Atom's that are just around the corner.
My thoughts are that this means more competition within the lower price range market and more pressure on other mobile devices (whether it actualizes into a threat doesn't matter, the pressure is there).
Furthermore, Microsoft would be insane to release a Surface Mini with WIndows RT if everyone else releases with Windows 8, because it would once again create chaotic confusion amongst consumers, who would once again be offered confusing options, and thereby elect to avoid the Windows mini category all together, unless that is, the OEMs spend massive amounts of money explaining why THEIR tablets are the ones people should be buying, and even that might not be enough if Microsoft themselves counter promote a Windows RT mini.
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If you wanted a really creditable Atom tablet, need to wait for Bay Trail Slides, will support SATA 2.0 (not 3.0) and USB 3.0. Also, 8 or 9 inches Windows 8 tablet would come soon. (Clover Trail Atom z2760 does not support SATA SSD and USB 3.0, but is a very bad eMMC SSD and USB 2.0 only)
If you wanted a really creditable Atom tablet, need to wait for Bay Trail Slides, will support SATA 2.0 (not 3.0) and USB 3.0. Also, 8 or 9 inches Windows 8 tablet would come soon. (Clover Trail Atom z2760 does not support SATA SSD and USB 3.0, but is a very bad eMMC SSD and USB 2.0 only)
If they DO start releasing pro tablets at sub $300 prices and they actually work half decently, those will be winners, and in my opinion, far more bang for your buck than almost anything out there. If it's metro though, you may as well go Android unless you *really* want the official MS software suite to play around with.
Not sure what you meant by half-decent, but how about this?
http://www.amazon.com/Vivotab-Office-ME400C-C2-BK-10-1-Inch-Tablet/dp/B00CY9Q8AQ/ref=amtcd_B00CM1BN5G_B00CY9Q8AQ
No way we gonna get a $300 tablet running intel iCore CPU, cos even i5 costs $200 alone.
Well, iPad and Android tablets have even less space and they sells well. The idea of a mobile device is to have good enough space to accomodate a few key big applications and several small ones. If you need more space, you will need to connect it to an external HDD or uses sdcard or flash drive. Using a HDD means you have to be stationary though.