News - ASUS says it will abandon Windows RT tablet market

[crossy]

I don't why people are so scathing of RT. As many of the Surface RT reviews said it is the only tablet available capable of being an actual laptop replacement mainly due to the inclusion of Office 2013. Ipads and Android tablets are fine for consumer services but the Surface RT definitely excels when it comes to serious work. Yes it was definitely overpriced at launch and the lack of Outlook in the initial release was a major mistake. However the RT 8.1 update that includes Outlook 2013 and other 8.1 goodness is due for release in Oct (beta already available) so expect a resurgence from MS on the RT front. They can't afford not to be a player in the ARM world so I don't expect them to give up on RT anytime soon. With better pricing and the 8.1 update RT will be a lot more attractive to serious users.

There's more to being an "actual desktop replacement" than Office 2013 and, as you say, not including Outlook was a seriously boneheaded move. Sure iPad's and 'droid devices don't have Office (yet?) but then the question is whether any of the third party products that are available on those devices are good enough to do the job. Personally, Docs2Go is a good enough word processor (although the Excel alternative - like all Excel alternatives - sucks badly).

The problem is - as has been noted above - that the price of Ultrabooks is falling fast. So unless you really need a tablet form factor, (especially light weight), then an Ultrabook is definitely going to be worth that little extra.

EDIT: just did a quick Google and eBuyer have HP Pavilion 14's for £320 (reduced from £405) while John Lewis are doing the 64GB RT with keyboard for £439. Heck, even the barely-usable (according to reports I've read) 32GB RT with keyboard is £359. Okay, you've got to add the price of Office to the HP's price, then again it's got a larger screen, better keyboard, faster, a lot more storage, not limited in choice of apps, etc. Even a full blown Windows 8 tablet is "only" £600, less if you shop around. And I'm of the opinion that as more people go for Windows 8 tablets the price will drop further.

[Funkstar]

Even a full blown Windows 8 tablet is "only" £600, less if you shop around. And I'm of the opinion that as more people go for Windows 8 tablets the price will drop further.

Acer W510 (based on a netbook) is around the £500 mark.

As ultrabooks fall in price, I'm hoping devices like the W510 will switch away from Atom processors and drop in price a bit too. One of them with a core processor, 4GB and probably 128GB SSD would suit me perfectly.