WILL WINDOWS 8 TABLETS CHALLENGE THE IPAD, AND WHICH ONES?
‘Challenge the iPad’ is kind of the holy grail of hardware manufacturers right now. Those present at the Windows 8 OS launch party in New York in late October will be hoping fervently that the new Microsoft OS – radically different from anything the company has produced before – will be the answer to all their troubles. Is that hope unreasonable? Perhaps not.
If Windows 8 is going to make waves, it’s got to be better than its competitors. Most importantly for Microsoft, it’s got to be much better; most of the company’s old consumer allies have flown the nest to Apple or Google. Businesses have moved from Windows and BlackBerry to iOS and Android, too – so Microsoft needs to treat this new market like just that: a new market.
At the same time, they’re hitting the market at a time when spending on tablets is booming. The Gartner report for the second quarter of 2012 predicts that worldwide sales of media tablets is to rise from 63,637,000 in 2011 to over 100 million in 2012. Moreover, they predict continued and accelerating growth, up to around 300 million tablet sales in 2015. A lot of these buyers will be those moving from Windows PCs to tablets for the first time. The familiar logo of a Windows 8 tablet may be of comfort to them.
But these sorts of consumer allegiances are short-lived. In order to really challenge the iPad, Windows 8 tablets need to offer something unique, something of their own. What’s more, in the modern tech world they need to be offering a lot of unique stuff – an entire ecosystem, in fact. And you know what? Windows 8 will. Welcome Windows 8 on ARM: now Windows RT.
Windows RT is the real competitor to the iPad. ARM-based machines are cheaper than their Intel-based equivalents, claims Lenovo North American chief David Schmoock: between $200 and $300 cheaper, by his reckoning. So they’ll be aimed squarely at the budget end of the tablet market. Big deal. Google’s Nexus 7 has already won there. Or has it?
Windows RT has a few more aces in the hole. One is Microsoft Office. Every Windows RT ARM-powered machine will run Microsoft Office straight out of the box. To put that in perspective, in 2010 Microsoft Office owned a 94 percent market share worldwide. From consumers looking to make a leap without leaving the ground, that’s music to their ears. It’ll be familiar. For businesses, that’s a headache avoided – it’ll be compatible with everything they already have in place. Windows RT and Office are a serious threat to the iPad.
What else? Well, any good Office productivity suite needs a keyboard. And again, this is where the iPad just can’t compete. Dell, Asus, Samsung and Lenovo will all have their own ultrabooks on show at the Windows 8 launch, and some of them – mainly Lenovo – will offer Windows RT flavours for those who are keener on ARM-powered ultrabooks. Ultrabooks have keyboards, sometimes undockable ones. And that’s a major, major plus for anyone who does serious work on a tablet – such as the hordes of people who’ll be picking up Windows RT-enabled machines. See, it all fits together!
So what is going to challenge the iPad? Windows RT-based ARM ultrabooks. That’s my prediction. Businesses will love them, and consumers will crave the continuity in productivity software offered by Microsoft Office. It is – potentially – dark days ahead for Apple.
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