HP Kills ARM-based Windows Tablet, Likely Thanks To Microsoft Surface 192
MojoKid writes "That didn't take long. HP has publicly confirmed that it has cancelled plans to bring a Windows RT (aka Windows on ARM) tablet to market in time for the Windows 8 debut. The company has decided to focus on its x86 customer base instead. HP spokesperson Marlene Somsak has said, 'The decision was influenced by input from our customers. The robust and established ecosystem of x86 applications provides the best customer experience at this time and in the immediate future.' Sources at HP have confirmed that Microsoft's Surface unveil last week was a huge factor in this decision. HP isn't willing to go head to head with Microsoft when it comes to launching new, unproven products. Abandoning x86 is impossible, but dropping Windows ARM is a way for the computer manufacturer to signal its supreme displeasure without unduly risking market share. It also increases the burden on Surface itself. If other OEMs follow suit, MS could find itself as the only vendor selling ARM-based W8 tablets."
Not that HP was ever very good at Tablets But... (Score:5, Interesting)
HP's track record with tablets is not all that impressive, but this is a big blow to Windows 8... which frankly *only* makes sense on a tablet unless there is a de-metrofication project going on in the skunkworks.
Having said that.. HP could jump onto Android or even attempt to bring some zombified version of WebOS back from the dead using the ARM platform.
Re:Not that HP was ever very good at Tablets But.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well... I'm actually more surprised that HP refuses to take the lead on ANY consumer-related goods. Or enterprise products/services, for that matter.
Man, I thought for a while that HP might be able to turn it around and get back to its roots of being a kick-ass engineering company, but it's pretty obvious that those days are now gone. I'm pretty sure that even the old engineering fogeys who might have been able to tell the yung'uns about what HP culture was like before have left the ship. At this point, it's just a large computer manufacturing company like Dell and Acer, with some enterprise big iron and consulting thrown in.
Sad to see them go.
Agilent (Score:4, Insightful)
The company you are remembering is now called Agilent, and doing quite well.
HP is the demon-spawn of the Carly.
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HP jumped the shark long before Carly joined in 1999. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Fiorina [wikipedia.org] )
They have a habit of buying tech companies no one wants.
Back in 1990 they had a *ultra* low power 128-bit (!!) CPU (Saturn) used in the HP48 SX / GX line of calculators and basically did nothing with the tech.
They are basically run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Hey guys we're don't know where we are going but we are making great progress getting there!
HP: Not Quite Dead Yet !
The "glory" days w
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Re:Not that HP was ever very good at Tablets But.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well... I'm actually more surprised that HP refuses to take the lead on ANY consumer-related goods. Or enterprise products/services, for that matter.
Man, I thought for a while that HP might be able to turn it around and get back to its roots of being a kick-ass engineering company, but it's pretty obvious that those days are now gone. I'm pretty sure that even the old engineering fogeys who might have been able to tell the yung'uns about what HP culture was like before have left the ship. At this point, it's just a large computer manufacturing company like Dell and Acer, with some enterprise big iron and consulting thrown in.
Sad to see them go.
All the engineers left when HP split into 2 companies a few years ago. They're still going strong at Agilent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilent_Technologies [wikipedia.org]
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All the engineers left when HP split into 2 companies a few years ago. They're still going strong at Agilent
So, the corporation known as HP is the "B" Ark, except the Golgafrinchans actually sent the "A" Ark instead?
This explains a great deal about HP in the last decade-plus.
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I was expecting the usual Microsoft team to get on here and start bashing their longtime partner. Thanks for not disappointing me. See you in the Dell thread!
Wow you make it sound as if Microsoft cheated on their loyal spouse on their 25 year anniversary or something.
These are business entities and do things as long as they make them profits.
E.g. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/03/09/2015233/hp-to-put-webos-on-pcs-in-2012 [slashdot.org]
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/02/09/2316203/hp-unveils-webos-tablet-plans-webos-computer [slashdot.org]
I was expecting the usual Microsoft haters to show up and sympathize with poor innovative HP being held back by Microsoft, and you didn't disappoint.
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Re:Not that HP was ever very good at Tablets But.. (Score:5, Insightful)
HP's track record with tablets is not all that impressive, but this is a big blow to Windows 8
Quite the opposite. Window RT is a monumentally stupid idea. HP not supporting it is nothing but good. The level of consumer confusion it will create is disastrous. "Why does this work on your tablet and not mine" why does my tablet not have an arm, or need an arm?
If microsoft wants to gradually trend the market towards having split arm and x86 business at the same time they can do it themselves, no one in their right mind should be producing windows arm anything.
Now microsoft doing it might shame intel into competing better and so on, that's good. But theoretical competition that drives innovation being good isn't the same as confusing users who, for the last 30 years have never understood system requirements and adding a new completely completely unresolvable compatibility problem is really bad for the windows market and stands in opposition to the one thing they're trying to do, which is make a simplified experience for users.
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Apple already has a split of arm and x86 products and it doesn't seem confusing at all to people. People understand that things that run on their iPad don't run on their Air and the world keeps spinning just fine.
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No one confuses an iPad with a MacBook because Mac* and i* are different brands. iOS and Mac OS X are similarly different brands. They both come from Apple, but they're marketed differently. In contrast, Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT are very similar. Microsoft has a difficult balancing act here, because they want to use the recognition of the Windows brand to encourage people to buy based on familiarity, but if they go too far in this direction then they're going to end up with a confusing mess.
Apple h
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But, Apple doesn't tout their mobile devices as using "Mac OS RT", Apple clearly makes them distinct calling them Mac OS X and iOS, so there's zero confusion over whether things that run on one will run on the other.
Microsoft calling both their tablet-ready OSes "Windows [something]" on the other hand...
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I doubt it's a blow to windows 8, since they seem to be still committed to the x86 tablet platform.
Frankly, I think most OEM's are scared of Windows RT simply because it looks so much like windows 8, that non tech savvy customers will buy it thinking it has all the capability of windows 8, but will freak out and complain once they realize that its pretty much Windows Phone 8 with a big screen and an incapability to run windows desktop apps.
Heads roll (Score:3)
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HP was actually quite good at tablets (Score:2)
The WebOS tablet actually had really good hardware. Yes the software was a rev or two from being solid, but it too was really good... everyone should be all the sadder that HP is removed from competing in this space, as they had the ability to do so, just not the will to carry forward what was a good and daring plan.
WebOS had the power to be a solid third place alternative tablet OS, now handed over to Microsoft.
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which frankly *only* makes sense on a tablet unless there is a de-metrofication project going on in the skunkworks.
Wasn't gonna comment... but, say what? From what I can see, Metro makes a decent interface... for tablets. All the hate seems to be for Windows 8 on regular computers.
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Good move. If HP were to make Windows RT based tablets, it should be based on Medfield or Fusion, not ARM. That one made no sense, even if MS did not come out w/ the Surface.
How many risks can a company take? As it is, Itanium has cost them significantly, and if they were to go w/ ARM, there would be no end to it. I have no idea whether HP would go w/ an x64 based tablet w/ Windows, but even if it doesn't, that's still a better idea than Windows RT on ARM.
Really speaking, their WebOS tablet was fine
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I agree with your assessment. Metro is fine. I spend all my time on the desktop anyway. I pin my programs, and I now windows key+F to do a system search for programs and files, and just windows key+type when I need to find something in real time. I do find the filters in start menu search annoying though. I just want a flat search...
Why is this a problem for Microsoft? (Score:2, Insightful)
"If other OEMs follow suit, MS could find itself as the only vendor selling ARM-based W8 tablets."
Everybody else's tablets/notebooks: $1000
Microsoft's + Apple's: $600
Ballmer knows he can't outfox Apple, but HP? All too easy.
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"If other OEMs follow suit, MS could find itself as the only vendor selling ARM-based W8 tablets."
Everybody else's tablets/notebooks: $1000
Microsoft's + Apple's: $600
Ballmer knows he can't outfox Apple, but HP? All too easy.
I payed $399 for my 64gig Acer Iconia Tablet
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I payed $399 for my 64gig Acer Iconia Tablet
Good for all 3 of the owners!
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/24/acer-cuts-2011-tablet-sales-forecast-in-half-to-2-5m-units-citing-poor-sell-through-competition/ [bgr.com]
http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/26/acer-to-stick-with-tablets-despite-poor-sales/ [bgr.com]
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I don't know where you got your prices. $1000 for a notebook? Not normally. Tablets? I haven't seen a $1000 tablet yet. My ASUS TF300 that I just got was $385, and my Viewsonic gTablet before that (last year) was around $340 or so. Google's Nexus 7 is going for $200.
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Perfect, isn't it? Leverage your monopoly in the desktop space to push the APIs you use on your tablets, and then reserve the tablet space for yourself!
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Even if Microsoft manages to kill OEM interest in Win8 ARM tablets, they won't be the only player in the tablet space. They'll still be competing with Win8 x86 tablets -- which OEMs aren't rushing to give up on yet -- and, more significantly, they'll still be competing with Android and iOS tablets.
Re:Why is this a problem for Microsoft? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Microsoft taking huge losses on a gamble? That would be unheard of.
Now, seriously, it is obvious that they'll take huge initial losses to try to establish some foothold. The question is only if that'll be enough.
They are subsidizing a killer-app: Office. (Score:2)
Office will be on the tablets, hard-wired like phone carrier junkware, and it will be a special Microsoft-only build process to install "desktop-quality" apps in the otherwise restrictive Metro environment for the locked-RT.
Also I'm sure they will make it easy to connect to corporate Exchange, and harder for everybody else to connect to corporate Exchange.
Probably a few years ago, Microsoft figured their main competition was Blackberry, but the latter is imploding on its own even without Microsoft's shove.
M
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I see very little business use for tabl
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See their phone offering for an example where they didn't quite get that right either. It's funny that Nokia's MS Windows phone is their only smartphone in the past 3 years
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> ... Unless they are willing to take huge losses (as with the Xbox) ...
In case anyone is curious ... that Xbox is one expensive little box!
Article is from 2 years ago ... (I believe the Games Division is showing a profit now...)
Microsoft's MidLife Crisis ... The Xbox game console is hot, but its division has lost $4 billion in four years and isn't yet in the black. ...
http://www.forbes.com/global/2005/1003/036A_4.html [forbes.com]
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how did you travel from 2007 to 2012, did you experiment with cryogenics ? Or do you simply suffer from retrograde amnesia ?
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Forbes has an article date of "10.03.05" which I interpreted as 2010 instead of the correct 2005. :-/
Regardless, if you read the financial statements it looks like the EDD (Entertainment and Devices Division) wasn't profitable until around 2011.
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Thanks for the financial statement link! Much appreciated.
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Did you see whqt they are doing for Windows 8? It's a tablet interface. It's a total mess for a desktop OS IMHO, but MS is definitly going full-bore for that space. They definitely are willing and definitely are going to take huge losses. If it's going to pan out or not is the big question.
Loved To Death (Score:3)
I LOVE the ability to run normal windows applications/games on a tablet
If so many other people LOVE the idea of running Windows apps on a device meant for touch input, then why did the past DECADE of Microsoft doing just that not catch on?
I have to admit the Surface looks nice, the keyboard cover looks interesting and it may indeed work quite well (no-one was allowed to try it at the unveiling). But to me it looks stronger as a Macbook Air competitor, than against anything in the tablet space... because yo
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Also, B&N's Nook Tablet.
$1000? (Score:3)
About a week and a half ago here on Slashdot, ozmanjusri said "Go learn something" [slashdot.org] in reference to 7" Allwinner SoC-based tablets.
So I bought one.
Not because I really wanted a tablet, but because I wanted to know why anyone wants a tablet. I had to admit "go learn something" damn well applied to me. Up to now I've avoided tablets because I haven't been able to tolerate the too-weak-for-a-laptop and too-big-for-a-phone form factor. But 7" diag is just at the limits of what fits in the my pocket, so I fig
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Re:Why is this a problem for Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple's: $600
iPad 2 is 400$ and iPad 3 is 500$.
You fail to mention that this is the base-bottom price. The high-end iPad (64GB storage, 3G connectivity) costs $830 - and this is without any accessories, not even a cover. Here's the way I see it, and I say this without any bias: The iPad is going to face very stiff competition at two ends of the spectrum.
At the low end, it will start facing serious competition from $200-$300 Android 4.0 and 4.1 tablets, many of which have extremely good screens, construction quality, and an equally good number of apps in the Android app store. Look at the recently announced Nexus 7. It has an IPS display, similar pixel density as the iPad3, 8hr battery life, Tegra3 CPU, and is priced at an extremely competitive $200. And it runs Android 4.1 Jellybean which is quite slick based on initial reviews.
At the high end, it will start facing competition from ultrabooks and x86 based Win8 Pro tablets. If you are already paying $900 for a media consumption device that lacks the capability of running heavy-weight apps, you might as well pay a hundred bucks more and get an ultrabook or an x86 tablet that can do everything and will give you a viable laptop replacement alternative. What would be a very interesting would be a dual core Intel Medfield (Clover Trail?) Surface tablet or even a non-Surface tablet. It would run all your x86 and Windows apps, give you the same battery life and standby life as an ARM chip, and would outperform the best ARM chip in the market. Core for core, the 1.6Ghz single core Medfield that is shipping with the Lava phone is head to head with the much touted Tegra 3 or Exynos or Snapdragon, and has very similar power consumption and standby numbers. The only place they will lag is in the graphics horsepower, which is probably why you will mostly see 1366x768 screen res. i3/i5 tablets would not be very viable as their power consumption is still too high - although I'm sure this won't stop big vendors from coming out with ridiculously heavy Win8 Pro i3/i5 tablets with cooling vents and what-not.
Anyway, just my thoughts. I do think that HP is correct in not supporting Win8 RT - it cannot carve our a niche for itself when it is getting hammered by Win8/x86 on one end, and Android/iOS/ARM on the other.
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This will be in what, 1 year? 2 years? And you'll still be comparing it to this years iPad3 because, as we all know, Apple never updates its hardware, software, nor innovates or anything in a 1+ year timeframe. Here's a more reasonable prediction: Win 8 tablets will come out and will perform reasonably, have little to no software, and be essentially useless for the first year or two. Their battery life will be much less than advertised and generally fall/fail quickly after that. The screens will compare nic
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The Nexus 7? It's got about 1/3 the screen real estate, by pixel count and size with a single front facing 1.2 MP camera only good for skype etc. And it's 2/3s the price. Hmmm, iPad Killer? Nope. Nice toy? Definitely.
I'm not sure why some people (and I don't mean the parent here) insist on thinking the Nexus 7 is targeted at the iPad's market - that just doesn't make any sense. The target they seem to be aiming at is the Kindle Fire - same size, same price, but better specs (and a camera).
I'm not sure they'll be successful, though. They're going to have to overcome Amazon's mindshare. I doubt most people will be paying all that much attention as to which version of Android is on which tablet, honestly.
It'll also be inte
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Re:Why is this a problem for Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
RT's inability to run x86 apps is a huge drawback. That alone makes it compete with Android and the iOS on Google and Apple's terms. In an established market, where there already are two dominant players, any competitor would have to offer significant improvements over the existing products to even be able to play ball, much less succeed (in this day and age where patents are granted to anybody who files, actual success is a crapshoot). I was pretty surprised to hear companies had even signed on to Windows RT. There may have been a market for HP's Windows RT offering. I honestly doubt it. I think HP was working on a Windows RT product only because it was present, not because there was any potential for sales. And I suspect many of the other vendors thought and will react the same way.
On the other hand, being able to run legacy and new x86 apps is a huge selling point for an x86 tablet (with a proper touch interface no less). Notice that the announcement doesn't mention canning any products based on the x86 version of Windows 8. That's because so long as enterprises are stuck on x86, there will always be a market for x86 laptops, even ultra-thin laptops disguised as tablets. HP knows this. They'd be blind to not see that the market potential for x86 Windows tablets is even today much higher than any potential for Windows RT tablets.
I think this may be good for Microsoft with respect to Windows RT. Too many form factors has always been Android's bane. If Windows RT needs only to support one piece of hardware or even only the standard configuration Surface set, the software will probably work better. Of course, whether Windows RT can actually compete with Android and the iOS is up for debate (and I honestly don't really see any compelling reason why it would). But it stands a better chance if Surface was the only piece of hardware it needs to run on and support.
I suspect based on the ridiculous license pricing and their release of their own hardware that Microsoft is intentionally moving itself into position to be the only hardware provider for Windows RT. If they do successfully break into the ARM tablet market with it, they'd have their cake and eat it too. I don't know whether this will work out in the long run, and I think they think the same way too, because it seems they're hedging their bets with the x86 version of Surface. But they stand to gain a lot more than they'll lose.
But Microsoft's goal may not be not to break into the tablet market so much as it is to maintain their dominant position in the enterprise market with a tablet offering. By having an answer to Android and iOS tablets, companies have an option that integrates well with their existing infrastructure. So perhaps in this regard, they will succeed.
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I agree - My boss was quite excited when he heard about the X86 tablets - Being able to run AutoCAD, MasterCAM and the like on a (reasonable) portable device would be awesome; especially if it was fanless(and thus not prone to sucking up dust in the machine shop environment). Especially if you can simply drop it in a dock and continue work on a larger screen and keyboard.
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You know what I find funny? You mention that the ipads will face stiff competition because of CPU, memory ....
And I zoned out. CPU and specs aren't nearly as important any longer. Apps are king, and Win8 doesn't have any.
I don't expect a lot from HP or MS. They don't 'get' pads, and once they do, they still must compete with the Apple app ecosystem.
Poor specs of Nexus tab (Score:2)
The only thing really nice about the Nexus tab is its screen and probably the multicore processors. To be sure, that's enough for it to extinguish the Kindle Fire. Even if it's far from being the iPad killer, the Nexus has a good shot at being the most s
I don't think is has a good shot (Score:2)
The only thing really nice about the Nexus tab is its screen and probably the multicore processors.
But that is exactly why I do not think it will fare del against the Fire - even IF Amazon did not deliver a new Fire this year (and I think we can all be sure they will), the thing that drives Amazon tablet sales is the heavy integration with stuff you buy on Amazon - people are used to that with books but they also have a good tie in for music and movies and other video.
So it doesn't really matter if the Nexu
You are insane (Score:2)
and an equally good number of apps
That is absolutely wrong. There are around 200k apps specifically tailored for the larger screen real estate of the iPad. Designing for a larger space makes a huge difference vs. simply having a UI with the same elements in a smaller space that scale up.
The iPad has something like two orders of magnitude more tablet specific applications, it has an amazing lead there - and I really can't see that ending very soon, given that Android needs to have a tablet sales surge fir
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Mention that that is for the low storage, low capability mongoloid version. The high end one of north of $800. That's getting close to ultrabook territory. The x86 surface could easily dominate up there. I certainly know that it's the first "tablet" I actually would want.
The opposite of "The PC is Dead". (Score:3)
The robust and established ecosystem of x86 applications provides the best customer experience at this time.
The exact opposite position all the other major players are taking. Well differentiation is ONE market strategy I suppose.
Self fulfilling prophecy (Score:5, Interesting)
The robust and established ecosystem of x86 applications provides the best customer experience at this time and in the immediate future
Yes, there's no windows apps for arm, and noone will ever write any if there's no hardware or users.
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anything written in WinRT will work on both machines without even the need to recompile..
That's not true (and given that you can write in C++ for WinRT, would be one hell of a trick). You certainly can write a Metro app that's x86-only.
Wrong, you will be able to target them with one project, even if C++.
http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-30-15-metablogapi/0121.image111_5F00_thumb_5F00_604BA47B.png [msdn.com]
http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-30-15-metablogapi/2337.image120_5F00_thumb_5F00_38A7B902.png [msdn.com]
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First of all, your links do not show a C++ project. They show a .NET project (C++ projects don't have "AnyCPU" - how do you suppose that would even work?). The same dialog for a C++ project looks like this [tinypic.com].
That said, you can target both architectures in one C++ project, yes, same as you always could in VS. But it will separately compile your source code into two distinct binaries, one for x86, one for ARM. They will both be packaged in a single .appx for submission to the store, but the user will get the on
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Yes, but what good reason will most developers have to uncheck the ARM box and drive down their sales?
This relates to the OP's point about apps.
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I was originally responding to the following incorrect claim:
anything written in WinRT will work on both machines without even the need to recompile
Realistically, yes, I wouldn't expect more than a few x86-only apps, and those only because they depend on some legacy libraries that are themselves x86-only.
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c++ is a language .net is a platform. They are not mutually exclusive. Now why would anyone use a language design for run-time speed like C++ on an virtual JIT'ed architecture, with the obvious exception of porting black box like code, is beyond me !
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.NET actually permits running C++ on top of it, since its instruction set and type system are flexible enough to represent it - it has raw pointers w/arithmetic, unions etc. And VC++ can indeed compile practically any C++ code into IL. However, Metro C++ apps, as supported by VS 2012, are always compiled as native code, and do not target .NET. The only currently supported options for .NET on Metro are C#, VB and F#. I'm not aware of any third party providing support for anything else yet (it's somewhat dif
If only... (Score:5, Funny)
If only HP had its own OS it could put on those tablets. They wouldn't be relaint on MicroSoft and possibly could sell dozens of them.
Re:If only... (Score:5, Funny)
If only HP had its own OS it could put on those tablets. They wouldn't be relaint on MicroSoft and possibly could sell dozens of them.
What an amazing idea! For extra bonus points it would be Open Sourced.
Even better if they had a bunch of programmers who were skilled in the software.
Oh. Wait.
HP stands for ... (Score:3)
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Not that Dumb... (Score:2)
Why should HP be just another Win Tablet maker, competing not just with Google (and all theirs), Apple, and then Microsoft? I see it as "ok, Microsoft, you didn't give us a heads-up about launching this, so obviously you don't want our help."
Just curious... (Score:2)
...but if HP can sue Oracle for dropping support for Itanium, shouldn't MS be able to sue HP for dropping it's ARM tablet?
(yes, I know there are other differences, but it would have about as much merit. If you don't understand sarcasm, don't bother responding)
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If HP had signed a contract to support Win8RT the way Oracle signed a contract to support Itanium, then, yes, MS could sue HP for breach of contract.
Legal merit is dependent on legally-relevant facts, of which, in a breach of contract suit, the actual existence of a contract is a prime example.
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Which part of "If you don't understand sarcasm, don't bother responding" did you not understand?
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I understand sarcasm quite well, enough, in fact, to understand the difference between it and just posting irrelevancies with "sarcasm" as an excuse.
Naturally (Score:4, Insightful)
Even HP is smart enough to know that if they do just a little too well competing with Surface, there will be an update to RT that "mysteriously" tanks the performance of the HP product.
Not to worry, anxious to prove they're not up to their old tricks, MS will fix the issue just in time for the post-Christmas sales slump.
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That's great, because how it looks like is the only thing you can know.
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Declare person U
Declare person.eyes Iz
Declare person.hands Hanz
Declare method person.eyes.sees(object generic)
Declare method person.hands.touches(object generic)
Declare attribute person.hands.touches.on
Declare generic object Surface)
U.Hanz.sees(Surface)
Invalid method. U.Hanz cannot sees. sees applies only to eyes.
I'm not a real OO programmer. But I did eat at the Village Inn
Speculative nonsense. (Score:2)
Internet bloggers seems to think companies function, the way they would if Internet bloggers were in charge.
So MS announces a competing product without a price and it is instantly: Abandon project?
That is just silly.
The decision to wait and see on WinRT is probably a sensible one. This product is starting out with essentially no ecosystem. HP recently got burned releasing their own tablet with essentially no ecosystem to back it up (Touchpad).
The x86 version would be the only Windows tablet I would consider
That's what they want! (Score:2)
It also increases the burden on Surface itself. If other OEMs follow suit, MS could find itself as the only vendor selling ARM-based W8 tablets.
You say that like it's a bad thing for Microsoft. That's exactly what they want... to be like Apple!
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Steve Ballmer just wants you to love him.
Typical HP, Alas (Score:2)
And then t
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HP has a 20-year record of being messed up by other companies, MS and Oracle being two of the top abusers.
HP itself seems to be its own top abuser.
Who cares, IMO..... (Score:5, Insightful)
HP already utterly and completely blew it with tablet computing when they made the boneheaded move of cancelling the TouchPad. I bought a new 32GB model on sale for $149 as part of a closeout promotion Micro Center was running. (Basically, if you bought some other HP computer, you qualified for the $149 TouchPad too, and I had to get an HP desktop for my work.)
Despite being an Apple iPad user since day 1, I gained a lot of respect for the product HP had. They copied off a lot of the little things that made Apple successful, while managing to retain their own uniqueness. The TouchStone wireless charging dock was brilliant, for example, and was FAR more elegant than any of Apple's iPad dock solutions. The integrated login of webOS was a great concept as well. (Just create an HP user account and configure all of the online services you want to use with the TouchPad through that master account. Then you're signed in to all of them, or can select the ones you want on and off at any time with virtual switches to slide on or off. Go to the email client and all of your configured mailboxes are pulled up right there. Same for the calendars.) Even their online store had what I thought was an excellent layout -- where you browsed it like a magazine. The home page of the store would welcome you with suggestions of relevant apps you might wish to look at, based on the next holiday coming up or time of year, and there were pages of several featured apps described in more detail as you turned the pages and browsed.
If HP had any sense, they should have realized that the rush to grab up all of these discontinued tablets at blowout prices gave them a window of opportunity. All of a sudden, they had a decent-sized market out there of active users interested in the product! They needed to strike while that iron was still hot, rushing back to look at ways to improve the tablet and re-release a version 2 (hopefully at a reduced price that would keep it competitive -- but one still high enough so the sales would be profitable). From what I heard, there was actually a second TouchPad product almost completed when HP canned the project anyway.
The Palm guys who did webOS were really talented people ... just the type HP needed to actually do something innovative. But in the musical CEO madness, they got thrown under the bus.
HP can spin this any way they like, pretending they're sending Microsoft a message by cancelling support for a new ARM based Win 8 tablet. But come on! I see right through that B.S. Reality is, such a product would lack any real appeal compared to what Microsoft themselves announced. It'd be yet another boring wanna-be tablet in a black plastic case, with too high of a sticker price. Honestly, I can't see why any talented engineers or designers would even make more than a minimal effort working on anything new for HP these days? They just crap all over most of it and cancel project after project without giving them enough time to mature and gain popularity.
Problem was HP had no sense (Score:2)
I agree with you about the Touchpad. It had a lot of great ideas, and greta potential.
BUT it was ill-fated, to drop right around the time of the more epic CEO blowouts. At a time when a nascent product line needed vision to carry forward, HP lost all vision and just hand managers heading for the bunkers - a very bad time indeed to be a product just out of the gates in no-mans land with no-one at the top to back you.
That was one of the sadder "what might have been" stories out of all the sad things that ha
Good (Score:2)
I hope EVERYONE does this, leaving Microsoft sitting all alone.
They really aren't needed at this point in the game, and should tread lightly.
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I hope EVERYONE does this, leaving Microsoft sitting all alone. They really aren't needed at this point in the game, and should tread lightly.
That would be Steve "Twinkletoes" Ballmer you are referring to?
not necessary because of surface (Score:2)
Makes the most sense (Score:2)
If the rumors of WinRT licenses costing $90/tablet are true, then this is the best thing to do. With licensing costs that high HP can't hope to be competitive with Android on the low end. They'll be going up against the iPad and Surface. Why would you want to buy the OS from Microsoft and then have to compete directly against Microsoft, when both of them also have to figure out how to pull the market away from the iPad?
It's insanity to even try.
Is it going the way of the Touchpad? (Score:2)
Will there be a fire sale?
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Only for Dell, but that has to do with the batteries they use :)
It's working (Score:2)
Wintel is dismantling itself.
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"HP should consider what's missing in those devices from other manufacturers, find a gap they could fill, make the product different."
Is there any evidence they're going to do anything like this? They will make it different with a sticker. It's the Fiorina way.
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