Windows 8.1 with Bing: What Windows RT should have been
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"Two years ago, Windows RT was released. It was the scaled down version of Windows 8, geared towards ARM tablets. From the beginning it didn&39;t look good, and at this point it can only be described as a failure: neither manufacturers nor Microsoft have paid attention to it since the initial launch."
The question is, why was Windows RT released in the first place?
Let's take a look at the best-selling tablets on, for example, Amazon Spain. It is not particularly rigorous, but we see that the best sellers are tablets below 250 euros.Obviously, it won't be a surprise to anyone: we all like good hardware, we all want a Surface Pro 3 with its i7 and all the storage they can give us, but when it's time to open the wallet we hold back a lot more and settle for cheaper products
Windows RT was Microsoft's answer to making cheap products possible.
Microsoft was no stranger to that either. It was useless to offer Windows 8 prepared for tablets if later the manufacturers, between license prices and processors, could not get cheap products that dominated the market below. The solution: offer a Windows that would open the door to low-cost products. And Windows RT came out, a version taken to ARM processors and with certain limitations.
Really, as a product, RT seemed like something thrown together. The nomenclature was confusing, (without looking: what is the difference between Windows RT and WinRT?) and they never managed to explain the advantages of the system well.And above all, the very system approach was weird : exactly the same as Windows 8 but not being able to run desktop applications, even though the desktop is there.
In that sense, Microsoft was very, very optimistic They overestimated the acceptance of Modern UI, and thought that users would accept something that it's called Windows but it doesn't run Windows applications (except Office). I guess that's what led them to the conclusion that Windows RT was a good idea and would succeed.
Windows 8.1 with Bing: Same problem, better solution
The only problem that Windows RT solved was that of price Many times we have commented that autonomy was also important, and although it is true that ARMs could be squeezed more in this regard, it was not the main reason for launching RT either. After all, we already saw that tablets with Intel Atom could offer more than acceptable autonomy (for example, in the Acer Iconia W3), and things are going to improve much more with the new Bay Trail.
On the other hand, battery is also not as important a factor as price for users - the example of this is the cheap Android phones that continue to be sold, despite the fact that many are more a pocket nightmare than a cell phone.
In the end, Microsoft has reacted with Windows 8.1 with Bing. They reduce license income (the edition is free for manufacturers), but in exchange it gives more relevance to Bing and other services, such as Office or Skype, which may be included. And, of course, it pretty much solves the cost problem: you just have to look at the products that have been presented at IFA 2014. Why wasn't it done that way from the beginning? Why remove Windows RT?
The answer lies in the strategy of Sinofsky&39;s Windows division.Seen with perspective, it seems a bit absurd to think that they could convince the millions of Windows users, not exactly considered early adopters, that they had to make the leap to such a radical change>."
And in the same way that they did not know how to foresee this rejection, they did not think that the Windows RT that they were presenting to the world would have any problems. Windows 8.1 with Bing didn't come before because they didn't think it was necessary We all know what the consequences of that idealism were.
What's going to happen to RT?
RT's fate is assimilation. As a product itself, it is dead.
It is said that Microsoft was trying to recover Windows RT, that in the future there will be only one Windows… It doesn't matter: the destiny of RT is assimilation . I highly doubt we'll ever see a form of Windows with the same idea of RT again.
"Yes, we will see the purpose of bringing ideas from the desktop to the world of large mobiles: multitasking, support for more devices via USB or Bluetooth… If Microsoft finally carries out its vision of One Windows, a single system that adapts to all devices, what we will see will be the vestiges of RT enriching the mobile experience, not limiting that of a tablet "
