Posts Tagged ‘ARM’

Microsoft reduces Surface RT tablet prices amid weak demand

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

With immediate effect, Microsoft is cutting the prices of its Surface RT tablets worldwide. Local and US price revisions within. Surface Pro prices remain unchanged.

Surface is the first computer made and directly sold by Microsoft.

Surface is the first computer made and directly sold by Microsoft.

According to research house IDC, the device has been largely shunned by consumers and corporate customers since its debut in October, selling just 900,000 units in each of its first two quarter on the market.

“Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface RT tablet by as much as 30 percent as the device struggles to lure customers amid competition from machines such as Apple’s iPad”, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The foray by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer into selling hardware is amidst a worldwide decline in sales of personal computer and demand for Windows.

Only last week, Ballmer had unveiled a significant reorganisation intended to streamline management and increase growth in areas such as tablets and mobile computing.

IDC predicts that tablets will outsell PCs by 2015.

Currently, 3.7% of tablets run Microsoft Windows operating system.

In Singapore, the price reductions (from Microsoft Singapore) are around 19-27% and are highlighted in red below.

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New tablets: Microsoft unveils two Surface tablets

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Microsoft has unveiled two 10.6-inch Windows tablets and accessories.

One model will run on Windows RT and will be released with the general availability of Windows 8. The other tablet will be available about 90 days after and feature Windows 8 Pro.

Update 2 (1 March, 2013):

Microsoft has announced that beginning late March the rollout of Surface will continue over the next few months.

Surface RT with Windows RT will reach Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan.

Surface Pro with Windows 8 Pro will hit Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Update 1 (18 July, 2012):

Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky has just announced at its annual sales meeting that customers will be able to get Windows 8 on 26 October, 2012. This will be available both as an upgrade or on a new PC.

Microsoft finally joins the fray by unveiling its 10.6-inch Surface tablets.

Microsoft finally joins the fray by unveiling its 10.6-inch Surface tablets.

The Windows RT Surface tablet will run on an ARM processor, while the Windows 8 Pro version will have a third-generation Intel Core processor.

The Touch Cover and Type Cover double up as keyboards.

The Touch Cover and Type Cover double up as keyboards.

Each Surface tablet will have a full-sized USB port, a microSD slot, and a 16:9 aspect ratio; with edges angled at 22 degrees.

The casing of Surface is created using VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), where metal and deposit particles are molded to create a finish akin to luxury watches.

Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.

The VaporMg materials and processes has enabled the thin and sleek design of the Surface tablets.

The VaporMg materials and processes has enabled the thin and sleek design of the Surface tablets.

This also enables an extremely thin built-in kickstand to prop the tablet up when watching movies or video conferencing with the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras.

The integrated, built-in kickstand removes the need for a separate accessory.

The integrated, built-in kickstand removes the need for a separate accessory.

I like the idea and design of this integrated kickstand.

To transform the tablet into a “notebook”, a 3 mm Touch Cover uses pressure-sensitive technology to sense keystrokes as gestures, allowing users to touch type significantly faster than on an on-screen keyboard.

The Touch Cover will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. It clicks into the Surface tablet via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and doubles up as a protective cover.

The Touch Cover and Type Cover comes in many vibrant colours.

The Touch Cover and Type Cover comes in many vibrant colours.

Alternatively, users can click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

Retail pricing will be announced closer to availability but is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC.

OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Oh and if you’re interested in a 40-inch tablet, check out the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface. (I haven’t heard anyone else calling THAT a tablet yet).

The main technical specifications of the two Surface tablets are tabulated below.

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Computex Taipei 2011 draws tablet watchers and stake holders

Monday, May 30th, 2011

The 5-day annual trade show in Taipei will see more tablet models based on Google’s Android and a preview of Microsoft’s next Windows platform for tablets – one year after Apple’s game changing iPads grab the lion’s share of the tablet market.

COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (台北國際電腦展), will be held from May 31 to June 4, 2011 in Taipei. Taiwan based Acer and Asustek had first showed off their low-cost but trend-setting netbooks at the Computex in 2007 and 2008.

Investors and analysts will be watching to see if new Android based tablets can challenge Apple’s iPad. Non-iPad tablet competitors are expected to halve Apple’s 100 percent dominance of the tablet market to 50 percent next year, iSuppli predicted on April 21. The iPad had cordoned off the entire tablet market when it was first launched in June last year because of the absence of competitors.

Computex Taipei 2011 from May 31 to June 4, 2011

Computex Taipei 2011 from May 31 to June 4, 2011.

Both Google and Microsoft will send executives to the event to brief the media on their plans. Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, and ARM, whose chip designs are licensed by Qualcomm and Nvidia to power tablets, will also be vying for tablet manufacturers to select their chips.

Global shipments of tablets will increase almost twelve times to 215 million units in 2015 from 17 million last year, Toni Sacconaghi, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a May 26 report.

Computer sales growth will be reduced by 2 percent annually between 2010 and 2015, Sacconaghi wrote, because fifteen percent of all tablets will cannibalize the sale of consumer PCs.

Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will “preview its operating system designed for tablets this week, using hardware with ARM-based chips”. The current Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft is not compatible with the ARM chips used in tablets from manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola.