Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will not have a Windows 8 tablet until fall of 2012.
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, won’t release a competitor to Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s tablet operating systems until the 2012 back-to- school season, people with knowledge of the plans said.
Public testing of a new version of Windows will begin at the end of this year with partners and customers, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans haven’t been disclosed publicly.
Some more gems from the article:
“If 2011 is the year of the tablet wars, Microsoft will be awfully late suiting up for that battle,” said Michael Gartenberg, a New Jersey-based analyst for research firm Gartner Inc. “It’s not a good position to be in.”
A 2012 debut for Microsoft would likely put it up against a third-generation iPad from Apple and second and third versions of devices based on Google’s Android system, Gartenberg said. Hewlett-Packard Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. will probably also release second-generation tablets by then, he said.
Mark Martin, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment.
Windows 8 tablet vs. Ipad 3 and Android rev 2?
Gee, how do we think this horror story will end?
well, it’s really a good decision for them. for their future. as we know, nowadays there were lots of tablet out there, Apple, Samsung, China Mobile, Android, everything cames out all of the sudden. and Apple’s Ipad was on the lead.
i call it ‘business trick’..maybe there was some other word to call that, i don’t know..from now, Microsoft can observe from the market about the tablet, how efficient was it, how popular with it, the range of the customer, all about market business. It’s a good decision they’ve made. Well-done Microsoft! =)
Greeting from Malaysia, mic_51890@hotmail.com
Bad move Microsoft! Its predicted that mobile devices usage will overtake desktop usage in 2011 for lightweight computing. Microsoft really needs to establish itself in the mobile tablet market, they cant afford to miss out. If they want to maintain their market share and remain a leader in computing they need to catch up, apple is performing well with the ipad and ipad 2 with many businesses starting to use them as a replacement for laptops. Maybe they could ship an adapted version of the windows phone 7 os for tablets?