Hi there

Even if Ms doesn't realize it yet themselves - let's face it RT is DEAD and BURIED. Any new windows phone will work eventually on Windows 10 (just read the statement on W10 from the Ms presentation about it being CENTRAL to their new eco system. Presumably if Android can run on Snapdragon processor (those often found in mobile phones) then Windows could too.

Ms will quietly kill of the RT tablets too -- no point. If they make say a surface pro Mini it would be a totally BOVINE move to have it running a whole different set of applications --and as for the developers themselves --hardly a career enhancing move to be stuck developing applications for a total user base of about 7 users !!!! Can't see anybody rushing out to buy an RT device now --why would they --dead end device going NOWHERE.

The surface pro on the other hand fits totally into standard windows.

Cheers
jimbo

Good riddance, I say, good riddance to Surface RT.

Slartybart said:

Good riddance, I say, good riddance to Surface RT.

R.T ==>Really Trash. (Now Really TRASHED by Ms --RIP 2104 and nobody will bother or care). Bad move by Ms making that - but let's remember that was from the previous CEO who lumbered us with W8.

The present honchos running Ms seem to be getting their act together -- won't turn round in 5 mins but they are going places. The Hologram thing is also great - loads of future mileage in those sorts of devices but needs humungous compute power . Could be very interesting - especially when that stuff moves away from a user requiring to wear those headsets / glasses.

Cheers
jimbo

I feel bad for those that spent their money on it.

Yes RT is dead. MSFT has been hinting at that for quite some time. Even before Julie Larson-Green basically proclaimed that fact. Though really why all the hate? The ARM based Surface could have filled(and was meant to) the consumer niche. Kinda like the iPad. The Pro is meant for business users and it is slick, but I am not interested in dropping $1K on a home use device.
The problem is and has been for the last 10+ years Microsoft's senior mis-management.
Personally I want to pick up a Surface 2 (cheap off of CL)just to watch my training videos(and maybe some Netflix, etc ;-) ) in non-letterboxed 1080!

The problem is that Intel keeps coming along with more powerful and almost as cheap x86 chips that reduce power consumption. So ARM keeps making less and less sense.

It made sense 5 years ago, when these plans were started. x86, while making great power strides was still not as efficient as ARM, but with the new Airmont and Broadwell chipsets, along with Intel's new SoFIA architecture ARM is getting a harder and harder sell to consumers who can get more power, more functionality with similar battery life.

It really make no sense to cut out Vista.

Mystere said:

The problem is that Intel keeps coming along with more powerful and almost as cheap x86 chips that reduce power consumption. So ARM keeps making less and less sense.

It made sense 5 years ago, when these plans were started. x86, while making great power strides was still not as efficient as ARM, but with the new Airmont and Broadwell chipsets, along with Intel's new SoFIA architecture ARM is getting a harder and harder sell to consumers who can get more power, more functionality with similar battery life.

Broadwell is still expensive, but if Airmont or Cherry Trail can match the Qualcomm's performance, efficiency and price, it wouldn't make sense to have an ARM only Windows version. I'd rather have a Surface 3 x86-64 instruction set with Cherry Trail chip on it, knowing it'll be as good or a bit slower than Snapdragon 810 than a Surface 3 RT with latest Nvidia Tegra, Snapdragon or Exynos on it.

Mystere said:

The problem is that Intel keeps coming along with more powerful and almost as cheap x86 chips that reduce power consumption. So ARM keeps making less and less sense.

It made sense 5 years ago, when these plans were started. x86, while making great power strides was still not as efficient as ARM, but with the new Airmont and Broadwell chipsets, along with Intel's new SoFIA architecture ARM is getting a harder and harder sell to consumers who can get more power, more functionality with similar battery life.

It almost makes me wonder if Windows on ARM was just really a ploy to light a fire under Intel's behind to get their mobile poop in a group. Five years ago, Atom chips were pretty hit and miss on netbooks, nowadays on tablets they're actually quite stellar and do in fact make having ARM powered Windows tablets less of a necessity. And even still, those ARM powered tablets were so ridiculously priced to begin with, it was like it was intended to fail, probably to motivate Intel so they don't lose their most massive market: Windows.