Microsoft is said to be slashing the price of Windows RT software for small tablets to try to step up its game against Android, insiders told Bloomberg.
Despite the fragmentation and potential patents exposure in Android, its free, open source model is still wildly attractive to vendors, and is driving the Google OS deep into Microsoft’s heartlands, as seen last week when Acer unveiled its All-In-One PC ‘ running Android instead of Windows.
Of course, in newer ‘post-PC’ form factors, Android has the headstart, and is battling iOS, not Windows, for the tablet sector. Microsoft is said to be responding with a price cut for Windows RT licences for smaller tablets.
Although Microsoft sought to kickstart Windows RT, the first full-blown Windows OS targeted at ARM, not x86, processors, with its own Surface launch, this has done little to halt the Android/iOS momentum, while some long-time Apple partners such as Hewlett-Packard and HTC have not supported WRT. The operating system had less than 1% of the market in the first quarter of this year, compared to 40% for Apple, according to IDC.
‘You need more breadth of equipment manufacturers making the devices, you need lower prices, you need a better selection of devices,’ analyst Wes Miller of Directions on Microsoft told Bloomberg, otherwise the long term viability of RT will be in doubt.
Microsoft will use this week’s Computex show in Taiwan to reawaken interest in RT, but will be aware of reports that HTC, in particular, had decided not to develop a full-sized tablet running the OS because of the cost of the software. HTC is now expected to unveil a 7-inch RT device at Computex, one reason for the reports of price cutting by Microsoft.
Samsung, which launched an RT tablet, but did not ship it in some large markets including the US, says it is uncertain whether to create a follow-up device. This is a worry for Microsoft, given Samsung’s current high tide of fortune and ability to shape market segments. Although Android is the Korean vendor’s main mobile platform, it works with Microsoft on Windows Phone 8 and x86-based Windows 8.
Dell, Acer and others are expected to show Windows RT products this week, but so far Microsoft’s own Surface has been the only device available in volume. Toshiba unveiled and then cancelled a product, while the four RT machines launched since Surface’s debut in October are not in stores in volume yet, Microsoft CFO Tami Reller said last month. She said in an interview: ‘They want to hear we’re committed to the ARM platform, which we absolutely are, and they want us to respond to their feedback.’