At the Microsoft Partners Conference in Washington DC, the COO Kevin Turner made a surprising statement about Windows tablets. According to him, there will be Windows tablets available by the end of this year, selling for less than $99. While there weren’t any details given, this would be almost certainly on a smaller, 7 or 8 inch device. Since Microsoft has already allowed manufacturers to use Windows 8.1 freely on devices under 9″, it would seem the next step is to somehow further reduce the cost of hardware. possibly reducing the screen resolution needed to run Windows 8.1 will be one way to accomplish this goal. Hopefully the devices will have the full Windows version, not the limited RT operating system.
Both Microsoft and Intel are trying everything they can think of to increase their presence in the mobile device segment. Intel has been providing free engineering support to a number of Chinese companies, encouraging them to use Intel chips. While many of these tablets will run android, an increasing percentage also are utilizing the free Windows version available on smaller devices. There are a growing number of tablets available from Chinese makers with Windows 8.1, and some are even trying to make dual-boot, android/Windows tablets. At this point, market share is almost as important as profits. Gaining a larger piece of the mobile device market now will pay off in the long run.
