[PCWorld]

Post your comments for HP's hardware boss not a fan of Surface, Windows RT here

[bloggerray]

We can't know yet if HP is being brilliant or not so brilliant with their decision to ignore Windows RT. Given their recent track record of important decisions on tablets, it doesn't look strong that they know what they should be doing. The tablet world is clearly not a product that is in their wheel house.

Mr. Bradley is correct when he points out the poor distribution channels of RT devices--it needs to be much larger than the pathetic Microsoft Stores that are available in a handful of cities in the U.S. I hope Microsoft will quickly expand their retail channel.

Then there is the question as whether the Surface RT will be a worthy competitor to the iPad and Android tablets. If I align Apple and Google on one side and Microsoft on the other, there is a clear face off, with both sides having one trump card available in the game.

Apple and, to a lesser extent, Google, have the trump card of a large inventory of ready to use apps. Microsoft looses when this card is played.

However, Microsoft is not without its own weapon. The ability to run its legacy app, Office, is a potent trump card itself, and it will be sufficient for many PC users who need access to these applications.

Personally, I think HP may be making another mistake, but it will take some time before the truth is know.

[apreiser]

Quote

Microsoft is not without its own weapon. The ability to run its legacy app, Office, is a potent trump card itself, and it will be sufficient for many PC users who need access to these applications.

Both Android and Apple can create and edit Word, Excel, and Power Point documents. Microsoft's advantage, if it can be seen as such, is running the native Office Suite Applications. The fact is, Android and Apple's apps have had time to mature, so there is little to no tweaking needed when you put a document on a tablet or send it back to a desktop/laptop computer.
As to HP not wanting to get into producing RT tablets, it sounds like they're going for the pro end and leaving the consumer devices to the competition. Only time will tell if this was a good decision.

[mobileguy1]

If HP's handling (i.e. "bungling) of their TouchPad marketing/fire sale is any indication of how effectively they handle the tablet marketplace, they are truly NOT in any position to be pointing the finger at any other vendor in this space.

After what they did with the TouchPad, I will never trust HP again with the purchase of any of their products. They left their early adopters high and dry and quickly abandoned a market that they had claimed they would make a huge dent in.

Shame on them for trying to exploit Microsoft's launch glitches with the Surface for their own benefit, despite having a viable product to compete with it. The real reason, of course, for all of this chest-beating by HP is that Microsoft dared to challenge them in the hardware arena by building their own tablet, rather than asking HP, Acer or Asus to build one for them. Poor losers the lot of them. I hope Surface is a massive success and leaves HP in the dust.

As for me? I'm selling my TouchPad asap - it's just a glorified doorstop now, anyhow, thanks to HP's abandonment of that market.