Seeking to take over the market dominated by Apple and Google, Microsoft is on its way to slash prices on Windows RT, a version of its flagship software for tablet.
A year after the launch of Surface tablets, Microsoft intends to cut prices of the Windows RT for small-sized tablets and thereby try and get more manufacturers to adopt the software. The Redmond-based company is struggling to make a foothold for Windows RT in the $64 billion tablet market, against the more popular iOS and Android OS ever since its launch last June.
According to an IDC research report, firms like Hewlett-Packard and HTC moving away from the Windows RT left the company with less than one percent market share in the first quarter of the year, as against Apple's share at almost 40 percent. The new price remains undisclosed but is believed to help Google to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire or Nexus 7 in the market by helping manufactures sell tablets for a cheaper price to customers.
The ongoing Computex computer industry conference in Taipei, according to Bloomsberg, will see a huge effort from Google to push device manufactures to adopt the Windows RT. However, it is no secret that most traditional players in the market are less than happy with Microsoft for not giving them viable means to compete with devices including Apple's iPad.
Samsung had earlier nixed its plans of Windows RT tablet in the United States citing modest demand, but Acer was more straightforward in calling the Windows RT platform 'very immature'. "We have some R&D projects (with Windows RT), but we will be very very cautious in deciding whether we will do the launch and mass production," said Acer Chairman J T Wang on Monday, according to Appleinsider.
