In a phone interview to CNET, analyst Bob O’Donnell of IDC market research firm said that Microsoft is expected to build a little more than 3 million Surface tablets (both ARM and x86). No one knows the exact price point, but Bob O’Donnell had his say “"There could be two ways to get Surface. Buy it outright for, let's say, $599. Or $199 for a two-year subscription and you can get X,Y, and Z -- which, oh, by the way, works out to more than $599."
Click here to read more about the interview.
During Lenovo's first fiscal quarter 2013 earnings call Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said “"Although we don't like Microsoft providing hardware, for us, it just adds one more competitor."
"[They are] just one of our many competitors. We are still confident that we are providing much better hardware than our competitors including Microsoft," said Yang Yuanging.
Furthermore, he said "They are strong in software, but [we] don't believe they can provide the best hardware in the world. Lenovo can."
"To be frank, we're not that worried about [Surface]. Microsoft is still our strategy partner. We are very optimistic on the Windows 8 launch so we will fully leverage that to launch our new products,".
Apple Inc licensed its prized design patents to Microsoft Corp but with an "anti-cloning agreement" to prevent copying of its iPhone and iPad, an Apple executive Teksler said on Monday.
Apple's decision to license its design patents to Microsoft was consistent with its corporate strategy, Teksler said, because the agreement prohibited Microsoft from manufacturing copies.
"There was no right with respect to these design patents to build clones of any type," Teksler said.
Source: Fox News
On Building windows 8 blog, Microsoft stated today that windows 8 will not just come on tablets, but also PCs with full keyboard and touchpads.
Here is how the touchpads are optimized for Windows RT:
In a blog post, Microsoft Today details their collaboration with OEMS for Windows RT Devices. Here are some key points of the post:
Read the full post here.
On Thursday, Acer chairman JT Wang said publicly that Microsoft is seeking ways to create a price chasm between its surface tablet and competing products from pc makers according to a Friday report in Taipei-based Digitimes.
According to Wang, if the tablet is priced at $199 it would have a huge impact on other manufacturers. But one priced at 499 to 599 would have a smaller impact.
Source: Cnet
