“Microsoft looks ready to kill off Windows RT, its version of Windows devised for chips based on ARM’s architecture, judging by remarks by senior executive Julie Larson-Green,” Charles Arthur reports for The Guardian. “Larson-Green, who is executive vice-president of Devices and Studios at Microsoft, said that the aim of Windows RT was ‘our first go at creating that more closed, turnkey experience [that Apple has on the iPad]…’ but that Microsoft now has three mobile operating systems: ‘We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We’re not going to have three.'”
“Her comments, made at a UBS seminar, appear to confirm the growing suspicions that Windows RT has been a failure both with OEMs PC makers and developers, who have all but abandoned it,” Arthur reports. “Only Microsoft and Nokia’s handset division, which is being acquired by Microsoft, make any RT devices. Microsoft had to write down $900m at the end of the June quarter on unsold Surface RT devices.”
Arthur reports, “Richard Windsor, who runs the Radio Free Mobile consultancy, commented: ‘I suspect that there will be no Surface 3 and no successor to the Nokia 2520 [an 8in tablet running Windows RT]. Furthermore I am confident that RT will be quietly put to sleep during 2014.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, unreliable Microsoft teaches its few remaining pigeons a valuable lesson:
Erratic Microsoft will pull the rug out from under you at any time (Zune, Kin One, Kin Two, Surface RT, Windows RT). Do not risk your hard-earned money on clueless Microsoft’s dead-end products because scatterbrained Microsoft most certainly will Osborne you sooner than later.
GWAK.
As we wrote as presciently as usual, over 16 months ago on July 10, 2012:
Is it just us or is instilling confidence among potential tablet buyers and app developers not one of Microsoft’s strong points? Microsoft’s patented method of wildly over-promising and woefully under-delivering just isn’t going to cut it in this new Post-PC world that Steve Jobs hath created.
Watching this Surface debacle unfold is like watching a clown car empty out. At the end, a sweaty Ballmer T. Clown will pop up through the moonroof and scream, “Ta da! It was all just a big fat joke! No, no, no, not me, the Surface!” Then, after laughing maniacally and for far, far too long, he’ll pop a light bulb into his mouth and wander aimlessly offstage…
Stay tuned, there are a lot of clowns packed into that old car.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Eric D.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
App developers shun Microsoft’s Surface tablet – December 4, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet flops, orders reportedly cut in half – November 29, 2012
TechCrunch’s Siegler reviews Microsoft Surface RT: ‘It’s time for a drop test – right into the garbage can’ – November 19, 2012
Slate reviews Microsoft’s Surface tablet: Too slow, mercilessly buggy; why is it so bad? – November 6, 2012
InfoWorld reviews Microsoft Surface RT: A disappointment; you’re better off with Apple’s iPad – October 31, 2012
Gizmodo reviews Microsoft Surface RT: Do not buy; inferior to Apple’s iPad; the worst of both worlds – October 25, 2012
The Verge reviews Microsoft Surface RT tablet: ‘The whole thing is honestly perplexing; who is this for?’ – October 24, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011