Asus backs away from Windows RT tablets

[haxartus]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/20455...t-tablets.html

Mere days after Microsoft was forced to slash the price of the Surface RT by $150 in an attempt to move more of the moribund tablets, Windows RT has received yet another no-confidence vote: Asus, whose VivoTab RT (pictured above) was one of the first Windows RT slates out the door, plans to pull back from the mobile-focused platform.

Asus Chairman Jonney Shih hinted at the possibility in an interview with PCWorld last week, saying that "Our direction is more toward x86 plus the [Windows] 8.1 approach."

But Tuesday, AllThingsD reported that Asus plans to slam the brakes on its Windows RT support. The company could decide to release another Windows RT slate in the future, but for now, Shih says the company's entire focus is on Windows 8 and Intel chips.

"The result is not very promising," Shih said of Asus' Windows RT endeavors.

ASUS said "The result is not very promising" about Windows RT. Which translated from corporate language means "We are never releasing anything with Windows RT ever again". The opinion of the other big OEMs is the same. So basically Windows RT is dying. Windows 8 tablet sales are not going well either, since they have to use x86 hardware, which is driving the price higher than Samsung's Android tablets.
The whole Metro on dekstop fiasco was inspired by the attempt to create an unified, multi-device interface, which is not happening anymore. This is something that could have been seen from the start and predicted, and it could have saved us the misery of working with Windows 8 in it's current state. I'm seriously getting the impression that Microsoft is being run by idiots.

[lordmatthias]

The surface pros are x64 now x86. I definitely agree that the RT clients are pretty meh. The marketplace is not developed enough to truly compete with apple and droid tablets. That being said, the pro tablets are AWESOME. In quite a number of situations they truly are effective tablet/laptop replacements as they are powerful enough to do MOST things you would want on a laptop, yet you still get that tablet feel and interface if you want.

The only major limitation I have seen with the Surface Pros is that battery life isn't quite there, and they currently don't have direct access to mobile data networks (both of these are supposed to be fixed soon with the next gen surface pro + type keyboard that has additional batteries in it for longer run time.

Dells Win8 tab is pretty close, but like you mentioned it DOES run the x86 atom CPU. This gives it superior battery life, but it still has all the old limitations all other 32 bit system had. Both of these products are slightly to the left and right of target, but I think the next gen ones will probably be spot on, and we could potentially start seeing a lot more people using them.