Monday, April 1, 2013

Will 7" Win 8 tablet be your pick?

After the success of Google Nexus7 and the lated iPad mini, Microsoft is now planning to join the camp of 7 inch tablets. A clear evidence is that MS has updated the required resolution for Win 8-based tablets. According to CNET, Windows OS can now be applied to tablets with a lower resolution of 1024*168 instead of its previous minimum resolution of 1366*768.


This is undoubtedly a good thing to hardware manufacturers inclined to 7 inch tablets, who can then adopt either Android OS or Windows OS. Although Microsoft highlighted that its purpose was to provide more flexibilities to its partners, a lower standard for resolution does help to reduce cost, which unavoidably leads to cheesy tablets in the end.

What Microsoft really concerns is whether customers will be interested in the smaller-size Win 8 tablets. But when it comes to customers, things are more complex. Together with OS, people also consider other factors like popularity, price and brand, not to mention that Windows 8 does not show many advantages in front of its opponents.

I have two HTC models running Android and WP and have to admit that I like Android better. The former one enables me to use in an easy way by being recognized as a removable disc. I mostly transferred APK files to the Android model for installing applications before getting used to installing on the device itself. (with WIFI connected) That's no big deal. On the contrary, I can only install WP apps on the phone. If there is no Internet connection, there will be no way to install apps. One friend of mine is using Nokia Lumia and she is very annoyed about the whole ecosystem.

Windows 8 and its ecosystem are similar to apple iOS in a way. Both rely on dedicated desktop application  and cloud server to transfer files while Android shows all files and apps to users directly, making everything accessible. A Win 8 tablet may come with a portable size and HD display, but this won't push people to take it.

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