Windows tablets

[eastmen]

It's not about what you as an individual wants, it's about what the target market wants. If the manufacturer thinks a $500 1 inch thick tablet that has a 6 hr battery running at Max TDP is not marketable they won't make it.

The mass market will get arm powered tablets. The x86 tablets will be for a diffrent class of user.

wco81 If not $200 7 inch tablets, looks like there will be 9 or 10 inch tablets around $300.

I bet the surface rt costs less to make than the fire 8.9 hd or whatever its called.

 

[eastmen]

Sounds like a killer deal to me. Good enough for doing your emergency RSS reading and email. It's hard to find a place in the US that doesn't have wifi, so the 4G is only needed for those rare cases where you don't, without having to pay $30 for just a month.

sounds like a waste of $50 bucks to be honest. 250 MB on LTE could go in 25 seconds .


I rather put that money towards a hot spot plan.

 

[SimW]

Can these compete on price with the $200 tablets?

If MS subsidizes the RT Surface to compete on price with Kindle and Nexus 7, not to mention why iPad Mini may be priced at, is there going to be any breathing room for the OEMs?

cant see them doing that. its all about maximizing profit, never will they fall that low on prices...

 

[silent_guy]

sounds like a waste of $50 bucks to be honest. 250 MB on LTE could go in 25 seconds .

You read much faster than I do.

I don't care that it's LTE. 3G/'4G' is fine too for my typical tablet usage. I assume the cost of an LTE modem has gone down to the point where it's lower than the opportunity buzz factor for Amazon.

I rather put that money towards a hot spot plan.

$50 gives me 1 month of hot spot data on AT&T for my iPhone. I don't see how that's a better deal for what's really just an emergency data link (in my use case.)

 

[eastmen]

You read much faster than I do.

come on we both know that as soon as a connection is detected the device will update every single app you have going through your data connection before you even have an idea of whats going down my ipad and touchpad (andriod 4.0) both do that.

I don't care that it's LTE. 3G/'4G' is fine too for my typical tablet usage. I assume the cost of an LTE modem has gone down to the point where it's lower than the opportunity buzz factor for Amazon.

I just don't think the offered plan is worth the money. For $30 a month I can get 3g/wimaxx/lte with 3 gigs of data on sprint

The bonus is that i can connect up to 5 devices on the tri band hotspot. So its not a limited data pool on a single device.

$50 gives me 1 month of hot spot data on AT&T for my iPhone. I don't see how that's a better deal for what's really just an emergency data link (in my use case.)

We have diffrent use patterns . I rather put the $50 towards a plan of some actual value . If i had an emergency and needed a data link why wouldn't I use my phone ? Or turn my phone into a hotspot for the one time monthly fee and tap into that data.

 

[Laurent06]

come on we both know that as soon as a connection is detected the device will update every single app you have going through your data connection before you even have an idea of whats going down my ipad and touchpad (andriod 4.0) both do that.

My Galaxy Note doesn't do that, it's just a matter of checking a box somewhere at least on Android 2.3.6.

 

[eastmen]

My Galaxy Note doesn't do that, it's just a matter of checking a box somewhere at least on Android 2.3.6.

I'm sure you can , but then i'd have to change the behavior on each app (since it breaks down by app) everytime i go from wifi to lte. Seems like a pain . Or i guess i can leave it on manual and then allways have to go into the playstore to my apps and then manualy update each and ever app I have

 

[Laurent06]

Or i guess i can leave it on manual and then allways have to go into the playstore to my apps and then manualy update each and ever app I have

Yes I indeed have to manually update each app, I guess I'm lucky the apps I have are rather stable

 

[wco81]

AT&T usually includes free access to thei Wifi hotspots with any mobile data plan.

If they do that for this $50 a year plan it might be okay.

And there aren't too many open Wifi networks in the US, at least around these parts.

 

[eastmen]

I have optimum and verizon wifi acess.

The majority of apps i have normaly have 1 or 2 updates a month.

 

[silent_guy]

come on we both know that as soon as a connection is detected the device will update every single app you have going through your data connection before you even have an idea of whats going down my ipad and touchpad (andriod 4.0) both do that.

I don't know about Android (is that the default setting?), but this is the first time I hear that iOS updates apps automatically.

I just don't think the offered plan is worth the money. For $30 a month I can get 3g/wimaxx/lte with 3 gigs of data on sprint

For me, $50/year is impulse buy territory. $30/month (and Sprint) definitely is not. (The latter may be entirely irrational.)

I find it very interesting to observe myself as an object of economic psychology. The way I can fret over $2 for an app, $30/month for a data plan, overthink buying a small or large pack of screws for a couple of $ at Home Depot, but don't question much larger purchases for things that have no recurring value (dinners, travel, ...) or see only a couple of hours use per year (think skis). Anyway, I digress.

We have diffrent use patterns . I rather put the $50 towards a plan of some actual value . If i had an emergency and needed a data link why wouldn't I use my phone ? Or turn my phone into a hotspot for the one time monthly fee and tap into that data.

Yeah, I get that. But the additional friction of going through the motions of enabling that kind of stuff and, more important, canceling it afterwards, is too much of a drag. I never ever used the 3G feature of my iPad 1 for that very reason.

 

[eastmen]

I can see where your coming from.

But doesn't the amazon lte package have the same pitfalls. If you forget to take off your hotspot from your phone your paying $20 that month. if you go over your MB/s for lte your going to pay also. Who knows how much they will charge per MB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Can these compete on price with the $200 tablets?

If MS subsidizes the RT Surface to compete on price with Kindle and Nexus 7, not to mention why iPad Mini may be priced at, is there going to be any breathing room for the OEMs?

If Google and Amazon are subsidizing their tablets, and if Apple decides to join in. Does Microsoft even have a choice?

Is on OEM RT device priced at 400 going to fare that much better against Android, Amazon, or iPad devices priced around 200?

The Surface RT isn't going to be the only competition for potential OEM WinRT slates.

If they don't think they can profit from RT Slates, then they'll likely just stick to x86 slates.

Regards,
SB

 

[Gubbi]

If Google and Amazon are subsidizing their tablets, and if Apple decides to join in. Does Microsoft even have a choice?

Subsidized hardware runs the risk of users rooting them and installing WinRT on them. Not a risk for Apple, but Amazon and Google use bog standard chipsets.

Cheers

 

[wco81]

Would Windows RT be an improvement over Android?

Tho I read that the Kindle HDs stutter so that could probably use improvement.

 

[Gubbi]

Would Windows RT be an improvement over Android?

Not initially. But WinRT is going to get a sh*t ton of software support.

Cheers

 

[Laurent06]

Subsidized hardware runs the risk of users rooting them and installing WinRT on them. Not a risk for Apple, but Amazon and Google use bog standard chipsets.

This is mostly impossible. It's not because two phones use the same SoC that they can run arbitrary OS.

 

[eastmen]

well intel is claiming that a 7.8w haswell is as fast as a 17watt ivybridge. If thats true then we could see some truely great windows 8 pro tablets in early 2013.

http://fudzilla.com/home/item/28703-haswell-at-7w-does-job-of-ivy-at-17w


I'm still hopefully that surface pro will ship in febuary with one of these beauties in it. It could really put the tablet market on its head.

8watt x86/64 bit system capable of decent gaming and running all windows apps. That be nice.


Even better would be able to adjust the TDP of the part to 17watts when you need the performance

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Subsidized hardware runs the risk of users rooting them and installing WinRT on them. Not a risk for Apple, but Amazon and Google use bog standard chipsets.

Cheers

Very true, I hadn't even considered that angle as I would be unlikely to root it and the vast majority of people I know don't root their devices. It would be interesting to see if that changes among my aquaintances if it's possible. There aren't too many of them that are happy with their Android tablets. Most have ditched them in favor of an iPad while a few are waiting to see what WinRT slates get released.

This is mostly impossible. It's not because two phones use the same SoC that they can run arbitrary OS.

It depends on whether Microsoft eventually makes WinRT as robust as Win x86 in terms of hardware support. Also depends on just how many OEMs reuse the exact same hardware for their Android and WinRT slates.

Regards,
SB

 

[Laurent06]

It depends on whether Microsoft eventually makes WinRT as robust as Win x86 in terms of hardware support. Also depends on just how many OEMs reuse the exact same hardware for their Android and WinRT slates.

Given the restrictions MS has put on the bootloader for the WinRT tablets I have serious doubts this will ever happen Using Trustzone stuff it's not very difficult to make hackers life a real hell.