| Saturday, March 5th 2011 |
Tablet PCs came and went, but "tablets" as a category began with the Apple iPad. Merely weeks after its launch, the rattled PC OEM industry announced plans for their tablets, some being ARM-based and driven by Google's touch-phone optimized Android OS, and some using x86 processors and Windows 7. Unfortunately, Windows 7 based tablets aren't cutting it in the market, and the problem is with the user-interface (UI) itself. While Windows 7 has a touchscreen/pen software framework, its UI is more PC-like. Menu items, buttons with applications, are not very optimized for a comfortable touch-only input device.
Hence, Microsoft seems to be expediting the release of Windows 8 for Tablets, and the software giant plans to do that as early as by CES 2012. Only the tablet version of Windows 8 will be released then, not the PC version.
On the cards are a user interface that's completely optimized for tablet devices, that can make do with limited hardware resources, while still being highly functional and productive. What's more, Windows 8 Tablet will support ARM architecture, as well as x86. So even as Intel frantically works out an x86-based chip with a tiny footprint, Windows 8 Tablet can use any of the fastest ARM chips in the market.
Market analysts still think Microsoft is lagging way behind in the tablet software race, to Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Even CES 2012 will be too late, opines one analyst. “If 2011 is the year of the tablet wars, Microsoft will be awfully late suiting up for that battle,” said Michael Gartenberg, a New Jersey-based analyst for research firm Gartner Inc. “It’s not a good position to be in.”
Source: Businessweek
Hence, Microsoft seems to be expediting the release of Windows 8 for Tablets, and the software giant plans to do that as early as by CES 2012. Only the tablet version of Windows 8 will be released then, not the PC version.
On the cards are a user interface that's completely optimized for tablet devices, that can make do with limited hardware resources, while still being highly functional and productive. What's more, Windows 8 Tablet will support ARM architecture, as well as x86. So even as Intel frantically works out an x86-based chip with a tiny footprint, Windows 8 Tablet can use any of the fastest ARM chips in the market.
Market analysts still think Microsoft is lagging way behind in the tablet software race, to Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Even CES 2012 will be too late, opines one analyst. “If 2011 is the year of the tablet wars, Microsoft will be awfully late suiting up for that battle,” said Michael Gartenberg, a New Jersey-based analyst for research firm Gartner Inc. “It’s not a good position to be in.”
Source: Businessweek
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