Samsung Joins the Field for the Fall Windows Tablet Race
Add Samsung to the list of hardware companies preparing a Windows tablet for launch this fall.
People with knowledge of Samsung’s plans tell Bloomberg that the Korean hardware giant will introduce an ARM-based tablet running Windows RT when Microsoft releases the operating system, most likely in October. The device is expected to run a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Beyond that, few details are known.
For Samsung, which has had some bad luck with its Android tablets lately — specifically an injunction against U.S. sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 — a move to embrace Windows RT was inevitable.
Why not cast your lot with Microsoft as well, and hope that the company is able to replicate its desktop OS market share in the tablet space? Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Google has no real desktop OS market share to leverage here. And Android’s mounting patent issues are clearly becoming a big concern.
Not that peddling a Windows RT tablet will be all that much easier. In doing so, Samsung will be competing directly with Microsoft, which has developed a Windows RT tablet of its own, called Surface. It will also be going head to head with Asus, Dell and Toshiba, who are all expected to debut similar offerings, all at the same time.