News - Windows tablets go big in Japan?

[HEXUS]

Latest figures show that nearly 16 per cent of tablets sold in Japan use Windows.

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[shaithis]

It's only because they hate saying Andloid.

[SUMMONER]

I want one too, but the well priced ones (e.g. HP's Omni 10) are all compromises and the good ones are far too pricey (for me).

[LSG501]

I'd be curious to see how many of these windows tablets use a stylus, I'd bet the main reason for the high percentage is stylus support. iOS and android just don't support hand written text like windows does and Japanese kanji, hiragana or katakana aren't really that easy to do on either iOS or android.

[spark9990]

windows is still too pricey

[Myss_tree]

windows is still too pricey

An Acer Iconia W4 tablet (32GB) can be had for £220 on Amazon which compares (price wise) favourably with the still on sale iPad Mini (16GB) at £249. Recently the 64GB W4 was available to order on Amazon for the same price as the old iPad Mini.
With Microsoft rumoured to soon be waiving the license fee for smaller tablets the price is likely to drop as well.

[crossy]

I'd be curious to see how many of these windows tablets use a stylus, I'd bet the main reason for the high percentage is stylus support. iOS and most android just don't support hand written text like windows does and Japanese kanji, hiragana or katakana aren't really that easy to do on either iOS or android.

Fixed that for you - remember that Samsung's Note devices DO support handwriting recognition - even to some support for cursive ("joined up writing"?). Not sure whether Samsung's recognition engine supports the Japanese styles, but since I assume it supports Korean I would have thought that a safe bet for some kind of support for at least one of the Japenese styles.

[3dcandy]

I did read somewhere that Note devices sell particularly well in Japan so seems to back up this theory quite well. I do like the stylus on my Note 3 but forget it's there!!!

[LSG501]

are you sure thats not an 'add on' from Samsung (what about the Asus one?) rather than an android feature.... I could be wrong, I'm not exactly writing a lot of Japanese lol

Oh and as a side note, I would jump at buying an 8inch windows slate with a wacom stylus AND 4GB ram...they're all stuck at 2GB

[3dcandy]

it is an add-on, but ships as standard on note devices as does a few other features like multi-window
It works very well to boot and makes the Note 3 for example very useable. Photoshop Express is great with a stylus for example

[crossy]

are you sure thats not an 'add on' from Samsung (what about the Asus one?) rather than an android feature.... I could be wrong, I'm not exactly writing a lot of Japanese lol

Quite correct - the handwriting recognition is a feature that's part of the Samsung keyboard. Hence me saying "most Android". But, and I could be wrong, I was sure that there was something similar on the S3 for a while too, (yes I know - that's still Samsung).
I guess it's the same deal as with Asus adding "proper" keyboard and mouse support to their version of Android for the Transformers. From what was said about those, the nature of Android makes it "easy" to put in those kind of alternate keyboards and input devices. Not being an Android developer, I'll have to accept that statement at face value.

Oh and as a side note, I would jump at buying an 8inch windows slate with a wacom stylus AND 4GB ram...

... and hookers and blackjack. (Obligatory Futurama quote).
Not a big fan of 8" form factor myself, and there seems to be some discussion as to what is an acceptable tablet spec for "full" Windows (rather than Windows RT).

Getting back to the Note line - I'm going to agree with 3dcandy (post #10). It's surprising how useful the S-Pen actually is. I was so impressed that I actually bought the "Pro" one that also has a spring-loaded "eraser" tip. Given the right software support (which varies) this feels so natural.

[Brewster0101]

windows is still too pricey

An Acer Iconia W4 tablet (32GB) can be had for £220 on Amazon which compares (price wise) favourably with the still on sale iPad Mini (16GB) at £249. Recently the 64GB W4 was available to order on Amazon for the same price as the old iPad Mini.
With Microsoft rumoured to soon be waiving the license fee for smaller tablets the price is likely to drop as well.

I didn't know they could be had that cheap. I like my Note 10.1, but I'm not all that impressed with Android as it matures.

I will be looking at a Windows tablet next.

[Myss_tree]

My Iconia W4 64GB is shipping today so should you have it by end of next week.