Microsoft caused a stir earlier this week when an executive appeared to hint that it might kill off Windows RT, the version of its Windows 8 platform that runs on ARM-based devices. But what would this mean for Microsofts mobile strategy and its remaining Windows platforms if this happened?
Julie Larson-Green, executive vice president of Microsofts Devices and Studios group, made the comments while speaking at a conference earlier this week.
"We have the Windows Phone operating system [OS]. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. Were not going to have three," she is reported to have told the audience at the UBS Global Technology Conference.
This has been widely interpreted by many as meaning that the company is planning to discontinue Windows RT, which has failed to achieve the level of sales that were expected of it. Rather than continuing to pour resources into developing and maintaining RT, many observers believe that Microsoft should just pull the platform and cut its losses.
However, this would leave Microsoft back where it started years ago: with Windows on x86 PCs, Windows Phone on smartphones, and nothing in the middle to address the consumer tablet market that Apples iPad devices had effectively created.
Lets not forget that all of the changes that have come in Windows 8 were introduced in response to the threat Microsoft saw to Windows PCs from the iPad and other tablets, a threat that has turned into reality in the consumer space as sales of PCs have continued to decline.
Part of Microsofts response was to build an ARM version of the platform, in order to deliver the combination of a light weight and a long battery life that devices such as the iPad enjoy, and which x86 based systems still cannot match.
But buyers have overwhelmingly opted to purchase Windows tablets with the full-blown Windows 8 version, which is capable of running existing applications designed for earlier versions of Windows.
According to Larson-Green, this is partly Microsofts fault due to a lack of clear differentiation between the capabilities and target markets of the Windows 8 and Windows RT.
"I think we didnt explain that super well," she said. "I think we didnt differentiate the devices well enough. They looked similar. Using them is similar. It just didnt do everything that you expected Windows to do," she said.
Ovums principal analyst for devices and platforms Tony Cripps agreed, and said that it would likely make more sense for Microsoft to instead scale up its Windows Phone 8 software into a tablet platform to replace Windows RT.
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