If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Summary: According to a new survey, users seem very interested in Microsoft Winpad tablets, but what are their options for the next year or so?
A Boston Consulting Group survey out this week notes that 42 percent of U.S. consumers would be interested in buying a tablet that runs Windows -- significantly more than those who'd prefer a tablet running iOS or Android.
You can get a tablet running Windows today from a variety of PC makers. However, like AllThingsD, which reported on the new survey, I don't really think this is what those surveyed had in mind when they voted for a Winpad.
True touch-centric, more battery-conserving, more portable Windows tablets are coming next year (late summer/early fall seems to be the general consensus, though still not confirmed by Microsoft) with Windows 8. But Microsoft isn't going to stop hawking Windows 7 machines until Windows 8 is ready.
In fact, just this week, Microsoft made available for download its "Get Started" guide for "Using Windows 7 Professional on a Slate PC." (I feel as though Microsoft's choice of "slate" over "tablet" here is somewhat odd, given that the devices in question aren't "just" consumption devices.) The guide features all the usual suggestions -- ones about which I've blogged before -- for making Windows 7 better suited for use on a touch-first slate/tablet, including pinning sites using IE 9, setting up Jump Lists, pinning the Tablet PC Input Panel to the Taskbar, using Snap to compare windows, etc.
The new guide points to Product Scout to help users find applications suited for slate PCs. It also provides a link to the Office-411.com site which includes a video of a Windows 7 touch slate/tablet in action.
Is that it, then? Users who want Windows tablets sooner than next fall have to go with Windows 7?
The answer seems to be yes. But there is one ray of hope. Windows8update.com' s Onoura Amobi posted a tantalizing rumor (with the emphasis on the word "rumor") on his Windows8update.com blog recently. Amobi said that Microsoft may be considering allowing one or possibly more hardware partners distribute the coming Windows 8 beta preloaded on new tablets. He said there's talk that the OEM(s) would sell (at a steep discount) tablets preloaded with the Windows 8 beta, with the caveat that they'd be optionally upgradable to Windows 8 final upon final launch. Microsoft isn't commenting at all on this, as Amobi noted.
I haven't heard anything about this myself, but his post made me remember that leaked Dell roadmap from earlier last year that showed a Windows 8 tablet codenamed "Peju" due out around January 2012. Many are expecting Microsoft to deliver the one and only Windows 8 beta in January around the time of the Consumer Electronics Show. Definitely something that made me go hmmmmmm....
Update: Talk about synchronicity: Engadget posted some possible Peju pictures on October 6. (Peju is expected to be a Windows 7 tablet, but it still could be upgradable/usable as a Windows 8 one.)
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Talkback
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Tablets are an overrated market
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Asking the wrong question
640K is still plenty of RAM for a CLI machine running Wordperfect 5.1. At the time, there was no concept of a GUI being mainstream (Lisa was barely more than a concept machine at the time), and doing any kind of creative editing on computer would have gotten you laughed out of any video or photo editing studio. Heck, the original Applewriter laser printers that jump started desktop publishing with PostScript had more CPU power than the computers they were connected to.
Equating "who would use a tablet?" with "640K of RAM..." are two entirely different questions. One is technical, the other is societal. What does a tablet do that a desktop cannot? not much, except be portable. What does a machine with 4GBytes of RAM do that one with 640K cannot? run pretty much every application i've got open right now.
Joey
RE: Asking the wrong question
I think you missed WarmBody's point. Both comments are based on current perspective rather than future perspective. At the time, the societal understanding of computing need was met and exceeded by 640K or RAM. LBiege's comment is a societal comment based on his current perspective of computing need for slate / tablet based computing. Both are equivalent in terms of perspective on current computing needs, and the comment was that much as the 640K comment was short sided, so may be the Windows 8 comment related to its focus on touch computing.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Well i can name u many places or jobs who need or use a touch desktop.
-Cashier.
-Graphic designers.
-Salesman.
-Civil architect.
-Vendor machines.
-Inboard computers (in airplane,cars,...)
And many more.
Probably for home use a touch desktop doenst seem as usefull as it seem, but the Touch in Windows8 is not limited to a touch screen, it can be :
-a touch keyboard
-a touch trackpad
-a touch surface
So yes i think Windows 8 MetroUI will be just awesome, we just need to wait for the proper Input output devices hardwares to be available.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Win8 is focused on the future, It would seem there will always be someone complaining no matter what MS does. If they push ahead first then they're wrong, if they wait for some else to do it and then copy, then they're copycats and not innovators.
BTW, I've been touching a desktop screen everyday for almost 12 months, so I guess I'm not in my right mind. :)
@selliot
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
???
-Cashier. = OK
-Graphic designers. = uhm No. I just imagine a graphic designer using a real ruler to get a line straight? :D
-Salesman. = OK
-Civil architect. = uhm the T-SQUARE? used on top a a Microsoft Surface would be better
-Vendor machines. = OK
-Inboard computers (in airplane,cars,...)
^ ...
...
Well just messin' with ya.. I got bored suddenly :D because I think I can't live without a Mouse. ^_^
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Touch screen is next big thing. It's how we point something to do something. Before we move the cursor using arrow in keyboard and press enter. Later me move our mouse and click. Now move our finger and tap.
Win8 is trying to go there.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Read the blogs from Building Windows 8: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/03/evolving-the-start-menu.aspx
ARM
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Maybe they haven't got the right OS for a tablet.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Most of the time "X" is World of Warcraft. I was surprised at first but after some thought this actually makes a lot of sense.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Please tell it to 42% of people who actually wanted Windows Tablet to play games. It seems they didn't understand the logic you understood.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
"Microsoft needs to develop a brand new, purpose built tablet OS with very tight and expert coding."
They have. It's called Windows 8. Well, the name isn't official yet, but what we're calling Windows 8 will be it.
No, it's not 100% new, but I imagine it won't be running Win32 - it'll be running WinRT.
What exactly do you mean by a "new OS" anyways? An OS these days is made up of thousands of components, and Microsoft has rewritten nearly everything going from XP to Windows 8. I can't think of anything other than the kernel itself that hasn't been rewritten.
And the kernel itself was engineered from the ground up to be solid and portable. It ran on the following architectures: IA-32, x86-64, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, Itanium, and now the ARM. I think it's plenty capable of running on whatever they want it to run on.
I think you misjudge the architecture of Windows, and I think you misjudge what Microsoft can do.
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
But Windows 8 will get the job done, I'm very confident of that.
What's the real reason for wanting Windows
RE: If you want a Microsoft Winpad, this is what you get (until next year)
Some people need more than a toy to post photos, browse the web, listening to music, playing games, and checking email. Think beyond the personal users and think more industry, business and education. Some of these need to be mobile just as much as the next guy and need access to specialized applications and functions a lightweight OS cannot deliver in it's current form.