Windows RT (also known as Windows 8 ARM) has been made mostly for the tablet market, at least at first. Those devices are designed to compete with Apple's iPad and with the many Android-based tablets on the market. Now a new report from Digitimes claims that Windows RT tablet vendors are encountering issues with the pricing of these products.
According to the report, which cites unnamed sources, Taiwan-based tablet vendors are able to price their products at between $300 to $350 for a 10 inch tablet running Windows RT, along with between $150 to 200 for seven inch tablets. However, the report claims that Microsoft's fee for including Windows RT adds another $90 to $100 to those tablet prices.
While tablet prices have gone down as a whole, especially since the launch of Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire in November, the report claims that tablet manufacturers don't have the added benefit of including sales of digital content in their revenues, as Amazon does with the Kindle Fire and Apple does with the iPad.
Windows RT tablets are not expected to be sold in large numbers at first when Windows 8 itself launches later in 2012; it is likely that most won't be ready to be released until sometime in 2013.
38 Comments - Add comment