HP and Dell are now among the companies that are preparing 10.1 inch Windows RT tabelts with TI OMAP and Qualcomm CPUs for Q4 2012. Supply chain makers are the usual sources and they have been very vocal lately, leaking a lot of info about Amazon tablets and now this…
Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek are also preparing Windows RT-based PCs, while Acer doesn’t want to take part in the RT initiative and prefers Intel CPUs. Sony and Samsung Electronics could join the RT segment as well, but not right now. The sources say that both Windows 8 and Windows RT slates could be priced starting at $599 and could reach as high as $1,000, doubling the amount one pays for an iPad, which I consider to be a problem. Of course, the $1,000 tablet will be one for the enterprise segment, not the average consumer.
Then there’s Surface, that everyone hopes will be cheaper than your average Win 8 slate… I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but one thing’s clear: it’s the licensing fees that are driving up prices and causing problems for component suppliers and tablet makers, who don’t know if they’ll turn a profit because of Windows 8.
