News - Nokia Sirius 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet to launch soon

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It looks like a big Lumia and will have a similar price to the iPad.

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Read more.

Looks nice, but the price is a bit naive I would say; especially with the IPad 5 and IPad Mini 2 coming.

I'm sure i'll be flamed but I just don't understand why Nokia would do this? They don't have capital to waste on an OS even Microsoft are struggling to sell. Can't help but think Elop is hoping for a recommendation from Steve Ballmer to replace him!

That price point can not be right? I mean why on earth would someone choose that over the discounted surface RT, assuming they wanted an RT tablet!

Specs are good. Hopefully they'll offer it at least 2 price points...

£350ish for 16gb wifi
£450ish for 32gb LTE

without the lower price point people will see £450 and think "I can get an iPad cheaper than that" even though the similar spec iPad costs £580.

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Originally Posted by The Hand

Looks nice, but the price is a bit naive I would say; especially with the IPad 5 and IPad Mini 2 coming.

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Not to say a slew of 'droid running gear, plus new Nexus (when Google fix the little screwups)

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

That price point can not be right? I mean why on earth would someone choose that over the discounted surface RT, assuming they wanted an RT tablet!

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Originally Posted by cheesemp

I'm sure i'll be flamed but I just don't understand why Nokia would do this? They don't have capital to waste on an OS even Microsoft are struggling to sell. Can't help but think Elop is hoping for a recommendation from Steve Ballmer to replace him!

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Unless Ballmer's got a gun to your head I can't think of a single reason why you'd launch a $500 RT device (and some have said "keyboard extra" which makes it worse!) when there's not a lot of interest from the punters, there's a shedload of very good competition, and RT itself is looking shaky - with one wag saying it should be rebranded as "RTg", as in "Reduced To Go"! No, if they want this one to shift then the £500 price tag must include the dock (kudos to Nokia for doing it properly and putting a secondary battery in their keyboard). To me, they need to discount it to make up for the lack of RT apps, so if it's more than £300 then it's a "no sale" for me. Shame it's RT, if it was Android then it'd give Asus some decent competition.

More interesting though is the "discussion" on G+ about this - the RT zealots are out in force, accusing all the naysayers of being paid Google shills.

Can I get an extra point for spotting that Sirius is the "Dog Star" - is this an offhand comment on the product by some disheartened Symbian fan in Nokia? :D

(and if you want some real Sirius conspiracy theories, then try this)

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

That price point can not be right? I mean why on earth would someone choose that over the discounted surface RT, assuming they wanted an RT tablet!

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Aside from a better CPU, higher screen resolution, better camera, LTE etc etc...

It's the wrong product though, RT & premium devices just don't gel for me. Windows RT is a less functional/compatible and thus more basic Windows, it should be on basic tablets to compete in the lower end (where it will look more functional in comparison), IMHO the way to steal sales from iPad will be with full Windows 8.1 x86 tablets (from £300 upwards) based on the new Atom and/or cheaper RT devices (£150-£300) undercutting in the way Android tablets have.

Nah I disagree, RT tablets have really good battery life. They are for people who would buy an iPad as their only computer device. For those people, they actually have MS office, can print something, and watch an adobe flash video type thing. An RT would be more than enough for any school child for instance. Along with a proper keyboard + mouse + usb hub.

The huge benefit is their drawback, they are crippled. In the same way its hard to eff up an iPad, its very hard to do so to an RT tablet.

For people like me the RT is a great travelling companion to my laptop. I've got another screen that can run Skype + Outlook, use power point or even light excel (no VBA macros). Meanwhile it has all that plug-in a USB HDD goodness for watching movies on the flight.

However my Nexus 7 is a more useful form factor for carrying about 10 inches isn't easy.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

Nah I disagree, RT tablets have really good battery life. They are for people who would buy an iPad as their only computer device. For those people, they actually have MS office, can print something, and watch an adobe flash video type thing. An RT would be more than enough for any school child for instance. Along with a proper keyboard + mouse + usb hub.

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Oh definitely WinRT is miles more functional than iOS and Android out of the box but it lacks the shiny apps and overcoming that and market inertia needs something to make people reconsider, price is an easy one and IMHO MS need to sell the next Surface near cost like a Nexus. Nokia making a premium tablet just looks doomed to fail, why would people choose it over what "common knowledge" says is good (iPad).

Of course the way to change "common knowledge" would be advertising but so far the RT adverts made it look like a robot dancing accessory and failed to talk up Office etc. I still chuckle at my Mrs for buying an iPad before knowing it wouldn't run classic office (she never even thought to ask thinking it was ubiquitous), many other people must make this errant buying choice... massive marketing fail. Sexy adverts build brand image but ones that explain the features the competition lacks are needed too.

one word...
flop

Doesn't matter how cheap or how good this is , Windows RT is dead.... Chrome Books clearly show that even if its cheap and powerful, an unsupported OS can kill the sales of hardware.

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

It's the wrong product though, RT & premium devices just don't gel for me. Windows RT is a less functional/compatible and thus more basic Windows, it should be on basic tablets to compete in the lower end (where it will look more functional in comparison), IMHO the way to steal sales from iPad will be with full Windows 8.1 x86 tablets (from £300 upwards) based on the new Atom and/or cheaper RT devices (£150-£300) undercutting in the way Android tablets have.

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Agree totally, heck if the RT was the same price as the Nexus 7 then I'd probably risk it and buy one, figuring that the availability of "proper" (yuk) Office and the larger screen would make up for the Nexus' advantages of being more ubiquitous and have many, many more apps. And isn't Sirus' list of $500 getting dangerously close to the cost of the Surface Pro etc (assuming a $150-200 accessory cost for the "optional" keyboard dock)

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

Oh definitely WinRT is miles more functional than iOS and Android out of the box but it lacks the shiny apps and overcoming that and market inertia needs something to make people reconsider...

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People keep saying that to me, but first off how difficult is it to go onto iTunes/Play and add some FREE content to bring up the functionality; secondly when questioned further the "more functional" turns out to mean "it's got a decent office suite as standard".

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

... price is an easy one and IMHO MS need to sell the next Surface near cost like a Nexus. Nokia making a premium tablet just looks doomed to fail, why would people choose it over what "common knowledge" says is good (iPad).

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Again, a £150ish 10" Surface RT is something that I'd probably buy - heck a "known brand/second tier" 10" Android tablet (e.g. Advent/Archos/etc) sells for about that, and you can get decent (i.e. known brands - Acer, HP, etc) 7" droid tablets for less than £100 now. I'm really not sure what Nokia are playing at with Sirius, they would have been far better to have "done an Asus" and done Sirius as a pile-em-high-sell-em-cheap device just to gain RT market share.

Oh, and according to the kids the new Nexus 7 is the "gotta have" device at the moment - iPad Mini's are "for old folks". :)

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Originally Posted by crossy

People keep saying that to me, but first off how difficult is it to go onto iTunes/Play and add some FREE content to bring up the functionality; secondly when questioned further the "more functional" turns out to mean "it's got a decent office suite as standard".

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That's the problem I mean to allude to, out of the box functionality is one thing but without the developed app market it doesn't mean that much. x86 Windows tablets have an easier ride here thanks to the whole x86 back catalogue (even if it does mean desktop mode) but RT is really struggling. I glanced at the Windows Store the other day on my desktop - very US centric (Oprah Winfrey app being pushed at me) and it was mostly tat.

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Originally Posted by crossy

Oh, and according to the kids the new Nexus 7 is the "gotta have" device at the moment - iPad Mini's are "for old folks". :)

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Haha I do see a lot of old geezers peering over their reading specs at a mini, reading the Daily Mail website or something. Apple kit has become that "safe" purchase that Which love and John Lewis staff will tell you is a safe bet.

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Originally Posted by Biscuit

one word...
flop

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So was the Xbox. MS put shedloads of cash on that thing, with no positive cash flow on it for ages.... That worked out rather well.

MS did however at least get round to marketing the xbox in the end. They realised that Nintendo was seen as the 10 year old boys console, the PS was for people who were cool, the kind who'd go out clubbing, kiss girls, then come home to play wipeout which for some chemical reason was really engrossing. MS moved in, sort of between the two. They didn't put the consoles in nightclubs or pretend that they where sexy (PS really did!)

The problem is the branding, windows RT. It just plane sucks. I get they didn't want to call it "Portable" or "Tablet" edition (because their roadmap includes those been x86/x64 too) but they could have come up with something like "Lite" or "New". The synonyms for New would be my choice, to communicate that your old apps won't work, but new is good, so that doesn't matter.

I'll go on to say further, I don't know anyone who's got an RT and isn't smitten with it. A mate of mines ex gf bought one after seeing me edit some go-pro video on it (things like the SD card reader working really well) doing a bunch of stuff in Outlook etc. This is at a web design firm where everyone else uses macbooks, she has become a bastion of envy. The RT is light enough that you can carry it + laptop. Yet it can do all the tablet stuff too.

MS haven't ever communicated this. However MS have committed to the platform, so who knows what will happen later in the year. 8.1 did address the issues that I would have buying one for my mum (in 8, too much is split between Metro and Desktop) so we shall see.

O my, I just had a flashback to playing the playstations at the old Corporation club in Sheffield. You couldn't imagine it now could you? They also had an indoor half pipe, that was an awesome club back in the late 90's

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

So was the Xbox. MS put shedloads of cash on that thing, with no positive cash flow on it for ages.... That worked out rather well.

MS did however at least get round to marketing the xbox in the end. They realised that Nintendo was seen as the 10 year old boys console, the PS was for people who were cool, the kind who'd go out clubbing, kiss girls, then come home to play wipeout which for some chemical reason was really engrossing. MS moved in, sort of between the two. They didn't put the consoles in nightclubs or pretend that they where sexy (PS really did!)

The problem is the branding, windows RT. It just plane sucks. I get they didn't want to call it "Portable" or "Tablet" edition (because their roadmap includes those been x86/x64 too) but they could have come up with something like "Lite" or "New". The synonyms for New would be my choice, to communicate that your old apps won't work, but new is good, so that doesn't matter.

I'll go on to say further, I don't know anyone who's got an RT and isn't smitten with it. A mate of mines ex gf bought one after seeing me edit some go-pro video on it (things like the SD card reader working really well) doing a bunch of stuff in Outlook etc. This is at a web design firm where everyone else uses macbooks, she has become a bastion of envy. The RT is light enough that you can carry it + laptop. Yet it can do all the tablet stuff too.

MS haven't ever communicated this. However MS have committed to the platform, so who knows what will happen later in the year. 8.1 did address the issues that I would have buying one for my mum (in 8, too much is split between Metro and Desktop) so we shall see.

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So what you are basically saying is that eventually W8-RT will be successful if MS just keep throwing money and marketing at it?
I think a lot of the success MS had with the XBox came with the 360 being cheaper, having better online services and a number of pretty cool exclusives like Halo and Gears of War. Sure, marketing played a big part in that but they provided people with things they actually want. I don't see that Win RT actually does offer anything special that people want?

I don't know anyone who had an RT device... Not a single person... I know a lot of people who will usually jump onboard and splash out the cash for something like this but no-one actually has. It doesn't do anything commonly useful that cheaper alternative products can't do just as well or nearly as well. On top of this, it's largely MUI based OS is pretty limited by the, currently average, windows app store.
Doesn't help that for the same money as most RT devices you can get a windows lap that's much more powerful (bigger numbers) and has more storage

I know loads of people who have Nexus pads, Samsung pads, iPads, Amazon tabs etc etc, most are pretty 'smitten' with them. I'm sorry, i just I find it difficult to comprehend that its directly because of RT and not the usual 'new tech' halo.

I see what your saying about marketing, because at the moment, it is being put next to an equivalent full Windows PC and perhaps unfairly compared that way. Personally i think its completely fair, because, the other side of that coin is that looking at the power usage capabilities of modern x86 CPUs and the kind of form factors that they are starting to squeeze into (and certainly looking forward), its even starting to look redundant from a portable (battery life, weight and size) perspective, so what exactly is the point in the platform? I think windows just had to start developing for ARM because they saw that's where their previous marketshare was going.

Why do you think Asus have announced they are dropping Win RT? Why do you this Acer announced they wouldn't be supporting it at all?

At the moment there is only one official RT OEM left (other than this newly announced Nokia device and not including MS themself), Dell. Despite the marketing, there is no way all the other multi million dollar corporations and their potential user base are wrong

All of this is kinda besides the point though, as this isnt soley about W8-RT, its about an expensive Nokia W8-RT tablet. It will be a flop or at best average, and that's something i would bet on.