back to article Asus boss flushes down tabs, says 'Windows RT has not been successful'

It takes a big company to admit it's wrong - and Taiwanese PC maker Asus has finally conceded that it can't keep making Windows RT tablets that folk simply don't want to buy. "It's not only our opinion, the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," said Asus CEO Jerry Shen told the WSJ ahead of its …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Keep the hardware

    Just find a way of putting a stripped out Linux distro or Android on there. Half the work has already been done!

    1. James 51

      Re: Keep the hardware

      Agreed.

    2. Tom 7

      Re: Keep the hardware

      Stripped out??? A full blown distribution wouldn't get the cpu warm.

      Have a look at the raspberry Pi.

  2. James 51

    The problem wasn't ARM, it was RT.

    1. asdf

      yep

      15 million iPADs and 28 million android tablets last quarter or whatever tend to prove your point.

      1. jocaferro
        Thumb Up

        Re: yep

        Ah!, ok. You were really fast to change the 50 million to only 15 and add the Android to the examples.

        Nice job.

        1. asdf

          Re: yep

          >Ah!, ok. You were really fast to change the 50 million to only 15 and add the Android to the examples.

          What because you think Android tablets don't mostly use ARM or shouldn't count? Altogether the ARM tablet market is now close to 50 million a quarter with a the Surface RT market share rounding down to zero instead of one percent in the last quarter. But go on cheering for team Microsoft.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. jaywin

      The problem wasn't RT, it was the pricing.

      Look at the number of people, even on here who said they'd grab one when it was rumoured to be £199. Then look how many were still interested when the actual prices were announced.

      1. Tom 35

        The problem wasn't RT, it was the pricing.

        No it was both.

        RT. Win8 is crap + you can't install 3rd party apps for the desktop is crap^2

        Costs more then an Android and almost as much as an iPad, both are a better deal.

        I have a Surface RT, hardly every use it. (it was free)

        I also have a Nexus 7, use it all the time, and I paid for it.

      2. Charles Manning

        Talk is cheap

        MS fans and others will often say they will buy new tech X, but it is quite another matter when it comes to actually extracting the folding stuff from their wallets.

        If I was to pull GBP200 out of my pocket, I'd be wanting to be damn sure I was getting something that actually had a whole lot of apps and had a reasonable track record.

        You'd be wanting it to be less than half the price of established platforms to make it worth taking the punt.

        Apart from XBox, all MS hardware has been a disaster.

  3. h3

    If you look at games consoles the best one (In terms of still has games I like playing) usually does the least well.

    (TG16/Neo Geo/Saturn/Dreamcast).

    If they sell these off I will probably pick one up.

    I will probably get an iOS 7 ipad as well just for playing games presuming the ones I want to play get the controller support added. (Up to now I didn't like the way it was locked down and charged a fortune for the accessories but I have enough stuff for everything I need to do already. So I will only use it for the software that is on it that is either far superior to the Android equivalent or only on iOS).

    1. M Gale

      The Neo Geo was an arcade machine that you plugged into the telly, and came with an appropriate price!

      Seemed like SNK were really playing on the whole "premium" thing in the last few years of that console's life. Still selling the same crappy old 2D beat-em-ups (but with real sprite scaling, woohoo), still advertising "400 mega spec" cartridges and pretending like they were the dog's bollocks as the rest of the games console companies flew by and overtook them at half the price.

  4. Herby

    Tommorows announcement...

    In the "I wish" department.

    Asus announces a Linux based ARM tablet. It is to be called a "Fondleslab" by its maker.

    Updates and peripheral interconnects available as well.

    So, will Asus remove the UEFI and let mere mortals put their own code into the machine? Time will tell.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Tommorows announcement...

      UEFI Secure Boot is only required for Windows RT. If Asus want to bang out a cheap Android or Linux ARM slab, by definition they'll have to disable it.

      1. Number6

        Re: Tommorows announcement...

        Or at least provide keys for some of the common distros that might be run on it, although that's still worse than just disabling the secure boot option.

    2. SkippyBing

      Re: Tommorows announcement...

      It may be too late to call it 'Fondleslab', one of the guests on Radio 4's today programme yesterday used the term to refer to tablets generically. So either she's a keen reader of El Reg or the term is already deeply embedded in the lexicon.

      1. tirk
        Joke

        Fondleslab

        You get downvoted for mentioning Radio 4 now?? The R2 fanbois are out in force I see ;-)

  5. Steven Raith

    So who's left?

    Who's actually making RT tabs other than Dell and Microsoft?

    Steven R

    1. Asok Asus

      Re: So who's left?

      It's just those two.

      My guess is that Dell will be out of the RT biz as soon as it can dump a bit more of its existing RT stock before it announces, "Guess what, all Dell RTs are now all orphans". That would leave just Microsoft, who is making noises about a Surface RT 2. But if they really proceed with that, they'll soon be writing down a bunch more of their RT "investment" again. Not too long afterwards, though, Microsoft will be forced to write down ALL of their RT "investment" anyway. Oh, and the fact that Microsoft would still proceed with a Surface RT 2 shows just how rotted out their management structure and decision-making capabilities really are.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    out of the frying pan....

    "Shen said it will make only Intel x86-compatible Windows 8 tabs from now on"

  7. Roger B

    So, build quality is good?

    Its just the price and Windows RT that is putting people off? I currently don't have a tablet, but, I think I am coming round to the idea of having one for accessing my hotmail, surfing around and using the Xbox SmartGlass app with my 360 and the Xbox One from next year.

    I did pick one up in PC World the other day and they seemed pretty solid and responsive, only thing I would like is a survivor style case, just incase it gets dropped. At what UK price point does the 64GB RT tablet become desirable?

    Also, is there is a list of Apps for the RT somewhere? can I get the main On Demand TV players? IMDB? a few games, maybe flightradar24.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: So, build quality is good?

      There really aren't any worthwhile apps for RT. That's a major part of its problem. You can't even see all the available apps without having RT which is another problem...

      You can look on the Win8 blog and search for RT apps to see some of them though:

      http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/tags/App+roundup/default.aspx

    2. Blitterbug
      Unhappy

      Re: So, build quality is good?

      @rogerb

      Mr B, the short answer is no, sadly. That's the whole point. Only Metro apps (and only from the Windows Metro store) can be installed, and as you know these are all appalling interpreted Java + HTML + CSS jobbies, basically glorified Win 7 desktop 'gadgets' like those stock ticker things. Yes, some are games, but wow! You really need a low threshold of pleasure to get any actual enjoyment out of 'em.

      No fully-compiled apps (and I mean applications, not Angry Birds) may be used - even if compiled specifically for ARM.

      Surface Pro - well, I'd be tempted at a much lower price point, and of course Start8 would be the first thing installed on it...

    3. Tom 35

      Re: So, build quality is good?

      The build is solid, if a bit on the heavy side. Screen is low-res for a 10".

      If you try to do anything beyond the basic not-metro apps you need the optional keyboard, or at least a mouse.

      App selection is very poor. They approve anything even if it will not even work. Lots of "sound boards, fart apps, blatant rip-offs of apps on other systems. Definite bootleg stuff (Disney cartoons). A lot of the listed "TOP" apps have under 100 ratings!

      The Microsoft Solitaire app has full screen video ads! The built in weather app has adds too.

      You can see here some of the stuff available. A few ok titles...

      http://www.appannie.com/top/windows-arm/canada/spotlight/

      I think it would have to be a firesale price before it was at all desirable.

    4. Simon Barker

      Re: So, build quality is good?

      It's not so straightforward but ultimately I assume most people want a tablet for the apps they can use on it and Windows RT still lacks some of the biggest ones, it's not as bad as many make out but it's still bad.

      Build quality is very good and it should compare well enough against any other tablet on the market, performance surprisingly is decent once you get 8.1 on but you'd be better served by another tablet if you care about your gaming. There are certain areas where I think it outdoes the competition such as UI but that's rather a minor point compared to the rest.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows RT

    The RT will stand for Retreat in 12 months when it's axed with little fanfare

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