Hasta La Gadget!

HP has confirmed that it is canceling plans to launch an ARM-based Windows RT tablet and will instead focus solely on Intel-based Windows 8 tablets for debut this fall. The company explains that the decision was influenced by customer feedback, which indicated that the ecosystem of x86 applications would offer the best customer experience.

Although HP has denied that Microsoft’s Surface tablet announcement was a factor in the decision, industry sources claim the contrary. According to them, HP isn’t willing to go head to head against Microsoft especially with unproven products. But instead of pulling out completely, HP will still move forward with an x86 Windows 8 tablet so as not to lose out on market share.

If other device manufacturers follow suit, it would put a lot of pressure on Microsoft’s Windows RT Surface tablet as one of the only ARM-based Windows tablets. It would also affect ARM-based chip makers such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments from getting in on the Windows tablet market. Likewise, Microsoft will have a difficult time breaking into the space currently dominated by ARM chips.

However, HP’s pull out form Windows RT could also mean that smaller OEMs may jump in to grab more of the market share. Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba may actually be more willing to bet on Windows RT with HP out of the way.

[via HotHardware]

HP to hold off on ARM-based Windows tablet is written by Rue Liu & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft has so alienated Windows RT tablet manufacturers with its own-brand Surface that OEMs are abandoning the platform, insiders claim, with HP leading the way in ditching its roadmap. The PC company had intended to launch a number of Qualcomm-powered Windows RT models, it’s said, but according to SemiAccurate‘s sources HP dropped its plans after Microsoft’s handling of Surface and OS licensing.

Rumors that Microsoft’s Surface agenda was fueled by a general sense of disappointment over what it saw OEMs developing broke earlier this week, with analyst’s sources claiming that apathy had been the company’s motivation to go it alone. “If Microsoft had seen compelling enough plans from [PC makers],” Moor Insights & Strategy’s Patrick Moor said, after talks with Windows RT OEMs, ”they wouldn’t have needed to do this.”

However, this new batch of rumors suggests that rather than just prepare Surface as a “Plan B” of sorts, Microsoft actively took what it knew of each OEM’s Windows RT tablet – and what flaws in each it had identified – and used that knowledge to prepare its own range. Meanwhile, Microsoft also supposedly liberated its own designers and engineers from having to abide by the same restrictions that third-party OEMs were required to operate under.

Surface also stands a chance of being priced more competitively than rival Windows RT tablets, because Microsoft supposedly will not be paying the roughly $90-per-unit licensing fee. In short, a decision that was seemingly intended to motivate OEMs into being more imaginative with their Windows hardware could well have backfired spectacularly.

HP is not the last to jump ship, it’s said. Although no other specific names are mentioned, the sources apparently claim that “just about every OEM out there is scrapping one or more [Windows RT] designs, with most renewing Android efforts with every resource at their disposal.”

Update: HP confirms the decision; more here.

HP reportedly first to ditch Windows RT tablet plans over Microsoft’s Surface is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve seen so much Ultrabook news recently we’re beginning to think they’re catching on. Market research firm the NPD Group has stepped in to confirm our suspicions, reporting a 39 percent jump in sales of premium Windows laptops (900 bucks and up) during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2011. Despite a three percent drop in sales of $700-plus Windows notebooks, the Ultrabook share of this bracket increased steadily to nearly 11 percent. The analysts predict sales of these lower-end models will pick up as back-to-school purchases sooth the post-summer blues, with a general boost to the whole Ultrabook market expected when Windows 8 arrives. One thing the figures don’t tell us is what impact these sales are having on the revenue of Apple’s skinny flagship, but we’d sure like to know. If numbers are your thing, the PR is past the break.

Continue reading Ultrabook sales up in first half of 2012, Windows 8 waits patiently

Ultrabook sales up in first half of 2012, Windows 8 waits patiently originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has been promising a cheap-and-cheerful upgrade path to Windows 8 for those who buy new PCs. But what about that five-year-old PC in the basement? If the historically well-connected Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet is right, the upgrade path will go further back — much further. Although upgraders will still want Windows 7 if they need to carry over absolutely everything, tipsters claim that settings can transfer from releases as old as Windows Vista SP1. Those with truly ancient PCs (we’re looking at you, corporate customers) can even bring over personal files from an OS as dated as Windows XP SP3. Like we saw last time around, some of the 7-to-8 upgrade rules are a bit Byzantine — 7 Professional users can’t step down to the non-Pro Windows 8 release, for example, and it’s equally verboten to change language editions or move from 32- to 64-bit code without a full-scale reinstallation. The extra-long olive branch will be slightly unusual for Microsoft if it’s confirmed, but then the company is also trying to move along a user base that in some cases has clung to XP for more than a decade. Redmond is no doubt eager to get rid of our dependency issues.

Microsoft reportedly plans Windows 8 upgrades all the way from XP, wants us to just let go of the past originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Europe’s second-highest court has finally denied Microsoft’s 2008 appeal of its 899 million euro ($1.35 billion) EU antitrust fine, while reducing the award to 860 million euros ($1.07 billion). If you can’t remember that far back, Redmond was hit with the penalty for delaying information about its operating system to rival companies, impeding their progress in competing with the software giant. It’s not known if a further appeal is possible, but we suspect that the company won’t give up if it’s got any options — it’s not exactly pocket change we’re talking about.

Court upholds EU antitrust decision against Microsoft, reduces fine slightly to $1.07 billion originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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