Friday, February 3, 2012

Have Microsoft missed the boat with tablets?

I admit that I thought that it would be tough to beat the iPad when it came to tablets. I couldn't see why anyone would consider anything other than an iPad unless they had (and some do) an "anything but Apple" philosophy or price was a big issue. Then I thought it was time that I looked at an Android tablet.

I was curious to know if I could use an Android powered tablet to monitor my web-server. The instant on and the ability to run Analytics (requiring Flash) was a bonus and also the fact that I could get  a free version of VNC reader to run on Android were all good reasons for looking around to see what  I could find.

I found an open-box Asus eeePad in Best Buy for $318 and that fitted the bill nicely. There is no point in doing a review on the unit, that is not the point of this post (or blog), suffice it to say I can use an Android device to do the monitoring that I require. The question is: Do I keep it?

The point of this post is that Microsoft have  lot of ground to pick up when they finally get Windows 8 released and manufactures start shipping tablets with it installed. As for ARM, I don't think that the consumer will give a "rat's" what the underlying architecture is and the tablet can just as well be an Intel or AMD processor. Again it will be the price that determines the customer choice and I don't see that MS are going to be able to offer an o/s that manufacturers can compete with Android powered devices.

Of course there is the "Anything but Microsoft" factor as there is a "Android is from the evil Google empire" sentiment. I guess time will tell again. In the interim an Android powered tablet is almost half the price of an iPad and it can be expanded with microSD cards and as such can handle an unlimited amount of media. Oh, the transfer of movies to the eee Pad or the SD card is a breeze (i.e. you don't need iTunes) AND it will play .avi files without having to do a "Handbrake job" on them.

1 comment:

Bangalore said...

microsoft missed the boat

I think that the Microsoft Surface is going to be a major disappointment for those that are waiting for a Windows 8 (RT) tablet. Even the Windows 8 Pro versions are going to prove to be too expensive for those that are waiting for a solution that runs a full "office suite".