Forrester Says Windows 8 Tablets Are Dead-on-Arrival
Microsoft has missed "the peak of consumer desire" for Windows 8 tablets, Forrester's JP Gownder believes.
While 46 percent of US consumers would have wanted to own a Windows 8 tablet in Q1 2011, the share has declined to just 25 percent in Q3. Forrester's JP Gownder says that Microsoft's marketing essentially failed to keep a momentum in the market and "amp up" expectations.
Forrester's take is that any late-comer to a market needs a compelling strategy, which is what Amazon and Barnes & Noble apparently created, to establish a necessary consumer desire that can sell products. As it stands now, Gownder indicates that Windows 8 tablets that are simply me-too devices are dead on arrival and require a fresh and convincing approach to stand a chance in a cut-throat market.
"Windows 8 tablets must provide consumers with a more differentiated product experience than it otherwise would have, had Microsoft entered the market sooner," the analyst wrote. "They’ll have to take a lesson from Amazon’s product strategists, who fundamentally changed the tablet product experience by leading with content and services rather than feeds and speeds, at a compelling price point."
Without having seen a Windows 8 tablet, it is, of course, difficult to predict the opportunity of the OS on tablets. We haven't seen a cross-device integration yet. We don't know how Windows 8 tablets can interact with Windows 8 PCs and we don't know how well Windows 8 devices as well as Windows Phones will be able to interact with Xbox Live, which remains a strangely underused asset in Microsoft's Windows and Windows Phone lineups. It is a bit early to discount the opportunity of Windows 8 as a platform spanning a variety of devices just yet, especially since the new touch interface will work much better on a tablet than it will on a vertical notebook or desktop screen.
If Microsoft gets the cross-device integration right, Windows 8 could easily turn into the successful catch-up player Forrester believes it can't be on tablets.
You can already do that with the current crop of stuff out there...
Can I file this under the "I don't know what a tablet is to be used for?" - Guy, MS tried that already (your suggestion) and failed miserably. Why the hell would they go down that road again?
And how are you doing to play Starcraft on a tablet? Windows needs to stick to OS and PC / Laptop, tablets are a fad, they are good for some things but realistically nothing more than casual entertainment, light web browsing, maybe a movie. They lack to many features to be highly productive as a real comp or laptop.
Why dont you buy the acer ones with windows 7 loaded?
I truly hope Microsoft integrates Windows 8 into all devices, PC, phone, tablet, and XBOX. Then I can have one ecosystem to contain all aspects of my electronic life. Makes things simpler and more compatible.
and tablet craze really is slowly calming down. look what happened to netbook, when they started out, people bought them, now they're almost junk. pc makers are getting out of tablet market (or so they have said) and are focusing more on ultrabooks and laptops.
1)How are you going to play Starcraft or any other serious game on a tablet? Are you going buy a keyboard and mouse for it, and essentially turn it into a 10 inch PC?
2)Do you really think it's going to cost under $500? The cheapest Win 7 slate I could find is the Gigabyte S1080, at around $650. And if you want the kind of hardware to play games like Starcraft, well that will probably run you around 1k if such a think will ever exist.