Microsoft to Unveil Windows 8 Powered Samsung Tablet at BUILD
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For the first time in what feels like forever, all eyes are looking toward Microsoft. All indications point to the release of a Windows 8 powered device as a late entry into the tablet game, produced in cooperation with Samsung. The announcement is expected to take place at the Microsoft BUILD conference happening next week and if rumors are to be believed it sounds as if attendees may even be given a device while they are there!
What I can help but feel is that this news raises more questions than it answers. What will it look like? What will it cost? Will it prove to be a real contender and breathe new life into Microsoft in an area besides their highly successful console gaming division?
The tablet itself is expected to feature a quad-core ARM processor, but the rest of the details are scarce. Even if it has enough juice to run Windows 8, it won’t mean anything if the display isn’t stellar and it’s too heavy or bulky. So for the moment we’ll wait and see.
This new version of Windows is expected to be universal: running on every and all capable hardware. This should mean that any applications you have on your desktop can be run on your tablet or even your phone, something it seems Apple is also trying to move toward with their evolution of MacOS to be more and more like iOS.
It has been my long-standing belief that the only company currently capable of unseating Apple at the corporate table is Microsoft. I may be proven wrong, but I just don’t see the corporate world embracing Android or any other open source style operating system as a whole, and any newcomer to the game would have to do considerable work to establish trust and reputation in order for the big checks to be written. Microsoft may have made mistakes and delivered a few lemons in the past, but in the end they are still the company we love to hate. (and hate to love)
My instinct says that if they waited this long, they wouldn’t release a device until it was ready and it was exceptional. But with this said, Microsoft has done a sprint to the end before. Either way, this is a tablet I’m very interested in taking a closer look at.
