Briefly: High priced 'Wintel' tablets, Dutch iTunes Match
Intel and Microsoft need to strike a deal or Windows 8 tablets might be priced out of reach for most consumers and Apple officially launches iTunes Match in the Netherlands.
'Wintel' tablets
It was reported on Monday that Intel and Microsoft's unwillingness to over hardware and software price quotes could drive up consumer cost of Intel-powered tablets running Windows 8, according to DigiTimes.
Notebook vendor sources estimate that so-called "Wintel" tablets could cost anywhere from $599 to $899, and both companies are reticent to cut component and software costs because doing so could affect the overall PC market and seriously hurt gross profit margins.
The situation becomes more confounding for Intel as its next generation Clover Trail-W platform, which features a low-power Atom processor, is battling ARM platforms from Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments for a place in upcoming mobile devices.
Intel and Microsoft's Clover Trail tablet | Source: The Verge
Apple, the de facto leader in the tablet computing market, is also said to be launching the iPad 3 in March. Rumored to be based on a proprietary quad-core processor, Apple's newest tablet will likely disrupt the Wintel tablet market as it builds upon the company's strong-selling iOS line of mobile products.
iTunes Match
Updated terms and conditions for Apple's iTunes Match and a change to an online support page on Monday point to an official rollout of the service in the Netherlands, though links to the cloud-based music matching service have yet to appear on the company's Dutch website.
According to the "iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability" Apple support page, the Netherlands is now listed as one of the countries to offer the music matching service alongside iTunes in the Cloud access to music videos, apps and books.
The €24.99 per year Dutch iTunes Match is identical to its American counterpart, offering all-device access to music in a user's iTunes library up to 25,000 tracks. Users can also upload any song that is not currently on the iTunes server, creating a cloud library for hard to find tracks.
As of this writing an official landing page has yet to appear on either the Apple website or the Netherlands iTunes Store, however a direct purchase link to iTunes Match is now active for users in that country.
Comments
If full Windows laptops with real keyboards, processors, and larger hard drive based storage and optical drives can sell for less than these Win8 tablets, why would anyone choose the tablet over the Win8 laptop?
"Because I want a tablet, but Apple are corporate whores that are overpriced and they lock stuff down so I can't do anything I want on it. I'm sticking it to The Man by buying a Windows 8 tablet!"
Oh gosh, it's so wonderful. Windows 8 on tablets is GOING to suck because of the hardware manufacturers. Microsoft said that Windows 8 might be their last version if it sucks. Without Windows, all the hardware manufacturers either go out of business or fall to single digit percentages of marketshare as Apple rises.
It's like something out of a late-90s Apple follower dream, but it's actually happening.
Question is, who actually wants an Intel tablet? I plan to get a windows 8 tablet, but its going to be one with an ARM processor not Intel. So if Intel don't want to drop there price who cares, they just won't sell anything.
I think that could make Intel cave here if Win8 on ARM is good enough.
If full Windows laptops with real keyboards, processors, and larger hard drive based storage and optical drives can sell for less than these Win8 tablets, why would anyone choose the tablet over the Win8 laptop?
Windows 8 x86 tablet you mean?
My guess would be be if someone wants a convertible, not a tablet or a laptop.
Question is, who actually wants an Intel tablet? I plan to get a windows 8 tablet, but its going to be one with an ARM processor not Intel. So if Intel don't want to drop there price who cares, they just won't sell anything.
The majority of consumers honestly could not care any less about what kind of hardware or software is running their tablets. How much longer must we keep rehashing the same story?
The tech minority continues to imply that they know what the joe-consumer looks out for, and time again they are proven wrong.
Did iPad consumers buy the iPad because it was ARM and not Intel? No. Did they care that iOS is OSX and not Windows? No.
They bought it because it works well, it's polished, and it's a toaster. Period.
I remember distinctly the fandroids, trolls, etc, preaching the Motorola XOOM's "superior" dual-core, NVidia hardware configuration, only to whimper-away in shame to the corner of a room when news broke that their "superior" hardware running android couldn't even best a year-old single-core 1st-gen iPad.
Let's end this hardware oneupmanship. It's irrelevant now. Give me and other consumers an appliance that is polished, easy to use, and has a great ecosystem. Apple does that very, very well. The other players?? Not.
I want iTunes Match here.
Apple doesn't like AppleInsider very much, though.
Question is, who actually wants an Intel tablet? I plan to get a windows 8 tablet, but its going to be one with an ARM processor not Intel. So if Intel don't want to drop there price who cares, they just won't sell anything.
given equal prices, I would choose the x86 tablet in a heartbeat. What's the point of having a full desktop OS on a tablet if its not able to run the full desktop programs/apps?
Question is, who actually wants an Intel tablet? I plan to get a windows 8 tablet, but its going to be one with an ARM processor not Intel. So if Intel don't want to drop there price who cares, they just won't sell anything.
These categories are going to blur over the next couple of years.
I think the question is; if you're going to get a Windows PC, and you aren't into something like CAD or "hardcore" gaming, why wouldn't you choose a "convertible" Intel tablet?
In 2013 a lot (if not most) of the "ultrabook" style laptops are going to have touch screens and a lot (if not most) of those will allow you to take the screen off and use it as a tablet.
If you're going to purchase a laptop anyway why not choose the one where you can take the screen off and use it as a tablet?
There will be Windows 8 ARM tablets, laptops and convertibles as well. They will most likely be cheaper and have longer battery life. They will run all of the same Metro-style applications as the Intel tablets/laptops/convertibles, but they won't run the "traditional" Windows desktop and legacy applications.
Of course there will be a market for these ARM devices as well, depending on the requirements of the user.
If an ARM device is a hatchback, and a PC is a truck, then these Intel touch screen ultrabooks and dockable tablets are SUV's and sedans.
Final though... poor AMD
IMHO the next iPad will be the one that is the last straw that breaks the camel's back and completly finishes off the Android tablet for good and consignes it to infomercials on shopping TV networks and a footnote in history especially if the iPad2 is dropped in price by $100 as the iPAd3 is released in March
Next month the company I work for is rolling out iOS support for employee bought iOS devices, (company owned are already supported) -> VPN: Outlook exchange, docs, single sign on, + many more. New services coming out each Qtr. the one I'm really looking forward to is desktop emulation through the Safari web browser so I can see my desktop remotely.
Apple is so far ahead of the rest of the industry, it is starting to look like a bloodbath. Really I expected more a fight from MS and Google, but the reality is they have for all intents and purposes given up, though they will never admit that of course. All hey are is a bunch of whiners now, completely outmanovered by the Apple juggernaut and are looking really stupid with each new tablet failure.
The funny part is you know the reason why the iOS is being implemented first? because it is the most secure and thus the corporate network can be opened up to it first. The IT folks are apparently still trying to figure out how to secure Android and haven't even got as far as detailed roadmap for supporting Android except some vague statements about trying to support it in the future. And without saying which company I work for it is one of the top 10 Fortune 100 Corps. Now if that doesn't indicate the future direction I don't know what more proof is needed. And I hear through the grapevine that most of the Fortune 100 are doing the same as us. Its not a question of if but when now!
hows that for irony!
The majority of consumers honestly could not care any less about what kind of hardware or software is running their tablets. How much longer must we keep rehashing the same story?
The tech minority continues to imply that they know what the joe-consumer looks out for, and time again they are proven wrong.
Did iPad consumers buy the iPad because it was ARM and not Intel? No. Did they care that iOS is OSX and not Windows? No.
They bought it because it works well, it's polished, and it's a toaster. Period.
I remember distinctly the fandroids, trolls, etc, preaching the Motorola XOOM's "superior" dual-core, NVidia hardware configuration, only to whimper-away in shame to the corner of a room when news broke that their "superior" hardware running android couldn't even best a year-old single-core 1st-gen iPad.
Let's end this hardware oneupmanship. It's irrelevant now. Give me and other consumers an appliance that is polished, easy to use, and has a great ecosystem. Apple does that very, very well. The other players?? Not.
You have to be forward thinking and confident to sacrifice current markets for larger future markets. When Apple revealed the iPad some investors criticized them for pricing the iPad at $500 because it would cannibalize Mac sales. Apple acknowledged that they would lose some sales, but were confident that this would be a game changer. Microsoft and Intel aren't stupid just like Kodak wasn't stupid. They are just in a position where their bloated corporate structure and fat revenues and need to please current investors outweighs the consequences that will follow in the decade to come.
BTW, Intel successfully made a leap of faith in the 80s when it ditched memory and started making CPUs. The question is whether they have the gall to do it now. Is Intel still as nimble as it was in the 80s? And where will it go if it does make a leap of faith? The answer isn't so clear. I really think Intel missed the boat when they sold their ARM unit in mid 2000s and failed to take care of Apple's needs for an ARM product. I think they assumed there
Intel and Microsoft have the same problem Kodak had back in the 80s. It is really hard to let a new segment of the company destroy the part of the company that is currently generating all the revenue.
Intel should possibly look at utilising their fabs to create ARM chips. I get that.
But how does your statement apply to Microsoft in their current form?
The majority of consumers honestly could not care any less about what kind of hardware or software is running their tablets.
....... The tech minority continues to imply that they know what the joe-consumer looks out for, and time again they are proven wrong.
...... Give me and other consumers an appliance that is polished, easy to use, and has a great ecosystem. Apple does that very, very well. The other players?? Not.
Hear hear. You get it. Reminds me of on of my favorite quotes:
"Engineers are all basically high-functioning autistics who have no idea how normal people do stuff."
The day of the "DLL" based system is dead, long live the sandbox.
The day of the "DLL" based system is dead, long live the sandbox.
Please read the following (then if you like we can have a conversation
I want iTunes Match here.
here or there? or anywhere?
Hear hear. You get it. Reminds me of on of my favorite quotes:
"Engineers are all basically high-functioning autistics who have no idea how normal people do stuff."
Do you realize just how stupid that quote is? Engineers designed that "polished and easy to use toaster". Which means that apparently they do know how normal people do stuff.
Being an engineer is a thankless job. When an engineer makes a bad design it is because engineers just don't get it and have no connection with the real world, but when an engineer makes a good design well there is no mention of the engineer then.
I can assure you that just as much, if not actually more, of the bad design in many products is forced on the engineers by sales or accounting. Because sales has some survey that shows that the customer wants X instead of Y, or accounting's numbers don't show that including feature Y is worth the expenditure. Of course when these people are wrong it is the "clueless engineers who don't understand normal people" that get blamed.
Such is the life of an engineer, and not just those in consumer product development. Honestly, how many of you think of the engineers and how good of a job they did on the countless bridges you drive over every day? How many of you jump to lynch the engineer when a bridge fails?
Engineering is a thankless job. As one of my professors put it. Do your job well and you MIGHT get a piece of paper from your boss to put on the wall. Do your job poorly and people can die.