Have you ever wondered why your PC is so expensive? Well, a good portion of that cash goes straight into the pockets of Intel for its processors and Microsoft for Windows. Unfortunately, while the market has seen that the days of expensive PCs are over, executives at Microsoft and Intel may fight to retain high PC prices as we move into the next era of the PC: tablets.
Tablet PCs are slowly taking over the market. With Windows 8, even Microsoft is pushing for a tablet-like future, and it’s no secret that Intel is threatened by ARM processors, which power almost all mobile devices outside of laptops these days. As such, it’s surprising to think that either of these parties would prevent Intel + Windows 8 tablets from competing with ARM, Apple, and Android on price, yet here we are. DigiTimes reports that neither company is willing to drop its prices, and it may mean that Intel-powered tablet PCs may cost between $600-$900, well over the $500 price of the iPad.
The problem is that Windows 8 is attempting to merge the tablet and laptop market, so if Microsoft and Intel lower their prices, they may gain market share, but they would also be cutting the price of traditional PC laptops as well. And once prices are cut, it could be some time, if ever, before they’re able to charge such a price again.
Still, it’s difficult to see a majority of people walking into a store (or going online), looking at two capable tablet PCs, one running Android and one running Windows 8, and deciding that Windows 8 is worth an extra $200-$600, especially if that Wintel tablet is thicker and has a fan on it. Microsoft is putting itself in a brand new predicament.
Well, these companies are in the business to make money and I’m sure margins are thin enough as it is. There are so many people making claims that a Windows 8 tablet can do everything and take the place of both notebooks and desktops, they should be happy and willing to pay the extra cost for a Windows 8 tablet. When it comes to Windows tablet, supposedly all that matters is productivity. If you can replace two devices with one Windows 8 tablet that’s a little higher in price, it seems you would come out ahead.
I have no idea why Microsoft would do that apart from trying to make Intel HW more competitive. This very much confirms that the Wintel Alliance is not dead at all.
On the other hand, their shoddy deal is quite a boon for Android / Linux.
You can have a pretty feature-strong Android / Ubuntu combo even now. I fyou buy a Transformer Prime with a Tegra3 SOC, you can have the following setup TODAY:
- Android for normal tablet / touch operation with a lot of feature-light but touch-oriented apps
- A full desktop Ubuntu installed into Android and run in the background so that you can use Android and Ubuntu in parallel. You access your Ubuntu based desktop through a VNC viewer.
- You can use all of the normal Desktop Linux applications in your Ubuntu session (like LibreOffice, Thunderbird, GIMP,
- You can even use all of the desktop Java applications in Ubuntu like MindCraft, TimeSlotTracker, Netbeans IDE, Eclipse IDE…etc (use Oracle’s Java SE Embedded, that is the best in my opinion on ARM and completely free)
The only problem I see is the fairly limited amount of RAM in the Prime (1GB). Hopefully, the 700 series or the Lenovovo K2 will up that to at least 2GB.
I thought Windows 8 for ARM won’t have a desktop?
That’s still not known. The rumor is that yes, it won’t have the classic desktop.
Currently, Microsoft doesn’t want to allow the Desktop Mode on ARM.
Great idea, since it will make Win8/ARM much less competitive.
Or consider getting an ARM Windows8 tablet.
im willing to pay $100-$400 more for a tablet with a desktop power processor and a full featured OS that has a productivity suite that is compatible with business. it doesn’t seem that like big of a deal especially when you consider the iPad is a wall of apps with little content generation abilities.
and as far as your statement “Have you ever wondered why your PC is so expensive?” I have to ask, compared to what? my PC was $1100 and has pretty much the exact specs as a $3500 Mac pro. My Macbook pro I’m using right not was $2500 and the comparable PC version s $1400. Ok, Intel and MS want their money but Apple also has a much higher “tax” rate for aluminum cases, and in my case, paid more money for the aluminum shel on my macbook, than the guts were worth.
The thing is if you want the privilege of running OSX then the Mac is the only game in town.
So typical!