If there’s one company out there which really dislikes Windows RT, it’s Acer. In the past, it has called the software several rather unpleasant names, and suggested Microsoft thought twice about the release of the Surface tablet, as it has never been very good at making hardware. Now it’s the turn of Acer President Jim Wong to turn the screws on Windows RT, saying last week that although it was still open to making an RT device in the future, he saw, “no value doing the current version.”
In October last year, Acer warned its Windows RT project had been delayed, as plans to release the hardware in early 2013 had been put on hold, due to the firm’s many questions over the manufacturing and pricing of Windows RT hardware. Assuming the two projects are one and the same, that’s the tablet which has just been effectively cancelled.
Wong’s comments come very shortly after Acer showed considerable support for Microsoft’s Windows 8 software, with the announcement of the bizarre Aspire R7 – a laptop/tablet/desktop hybrid with a trick screen – and the Aspire P3, which combines an Ultrabook form factor with a tablet-style screen. Hours after the launch event, the Acer W3 tablet was leaked and shown to pack the full version of Windows 8 into a 7.9-inch tablet. All this despite Acer whinging about Windows 8 failing to reignite the computing market too.
However, it’s not alone in thinking Windows RT is a dead horse, as at the beginning of the year, Samsung decided its Ativ Tab wouldn’t get a U.S. launch, saying Microsoft hadn’t educated the customer on what the software was all about. Understandably, it didn’t want to pay the bill just to release a single slate. Nvidia also thinks Microsoft needs to put more money into Windows RT, but like Acer, sees it as a potential future star. It’s all very well looking ahead, but if no-one bothers to adopt the existing version, RT risks being dropped. Microsoft is estimated to have a 1.8-percent slice of the tablet market, after selling 900,000 tablets during the first three months of 2013.
