Windows 8 RT

The first year of Microsoft's commitment to its groundbreaking Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems has already passed

The future of Windows 8, now 8.1, and the smartphone operating system, is clear. With a sustained growth of both platforms, and with clear, meridian and long-term plans for the future.

However, dark clouds are hanging over the “small” version of Windows 8, the RT. Which will have to be seen if they are short-lived summer storms.

The good news

Windows 8 RT is an operating system that has been seamlessly integrated with ARM processor-based hardware, far outperforming its main competitor that was expected to have been the Apple iPad.

I've been using the Surface RT continuously for a few months, and I can say without a doubt that it works very well for consuming information, and allows you to produce moderately.

It's a great value to have Office included by default (bundled as system apps) as, along with the Skydrive integration, it allows me to use the tablet as an excellent work tool in meetings, events or presentations

Even with the right keyboard, it allows me to write articles in situations and places where I couldn't do it as comfortably as it is on a plane or train.

In fact, the RT has been slowly but forcefully displacing its older sister, the Surface PRO, in use diary. Leaving the latter only for the occasions when I need enough power to move a programming tool, a graphic design tool or a database.

The arrival in a few days of version 8.1 will put Windows RT where it should have been at its release. This update, which we are monitoring in detail in XatakaWindows, is much better than the previous one. Being more complete, more functional, I have included improvements both at the firmware, kernel and software level.

And also, the cost of the update is zero since it is distributed free of charge for all devices that have version 8 at the moment.

The bad news

At a recent Lenovo presentation, the company showed off its new Windows 8 devices, including desktops, ultrabooks, convertibles and tablets. All with touch features, all with a design focused on lightness and mobility as opposed to the “brick” concept, and all with Intel processors.

That is, one more vendor stops building hardware for Windows RT, focusing on the new features that the new Intel processors are offering , and joining the rest of the industry in leaving Microsoft alone with the Surface RT.

As was well commented in the huddles of the presentation, manufacturers have seen that the sales figures for devices with this operating system do not compensate for the investments, and for this reason they have decided to bet on Windows 8 " complete ” which, thanks to Intel, is greatly cutting the distance in consumption and mobility to ARM chips.

In Spain, these poor sales figures are the direct fault of two causes: the lousy sales and marketing policy that Microsoft has followed , and the leap in quality both in hardware and in software of Android tablets (both the cheap ones and the most expensive ones).

To this we must add the vicious circle represented by Modern UI applications for Windows RT. With such a small percentage of market penetration, there is no incentive for software development companies to program for Windows RT/Modern UI, which prevents the Surface RT from being able to compete against the iPad or the price Androids. similar in quality and quantity of software available.

For example, a few days ago a manager told me that he loves the Surface RT, but he can't leave it to his young son because he doesn't have the library of child training software that comes with your iPad.

Conclusions

I am very happy with being able to acquire a SurfaceRT, with its performance and its usefulness in professional day-to-day and in my private life. It seems to me an excellent combination of hardware and software, which has given magnificent results that have exceeded what I expected from a tablet.

Of course, without forgetting that it is not a personal computer such as an ultrabook or a laptop.

But I am afraid that a rather bad sales policy; with very high prices for what the market is willing to pay; with disastrous marketing that has made manufacturers abandon this type of device; and with Intel at full power to unseat ARM; take me to have my Surface RT stored in a few years next to my Windows Phone 7

It would not be the first, nor the last, excellent product that is going to sleep the sleep of the just for coming out at the wrong time in an increasingly difficult market.

In XatakaWindows | Microsoft admits that the original Surface line of tablets confused users, A traveling Surface RT, using it at thirty thousand feet