Intel: Windows x86 tablets could go for as little as $100

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heatlesssun

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http://liliputing.com/2014/04/intel-envisions-99-windows-tablets.html

Of course Microsoft won't make any money on the licensing since Windows will be free on these devices but as others have pointed out that's why there's a Windows Store. But since these are x86 tablets, desktop software can be used on them. But they will come with only 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of SSD as that's now the baseline hardware requirement for Windows 8.1 Update 1 so it's hard to say how they will perform, but these new Atoms seem to be up to the task performance wise even now and are only going to get better.

In any case at these prices it all but guarantees Windows tablets some decent market share assuming these devices are now less decent than Android devices at the same price. They will have the issue of lack of touch apps though.
 
100$ for full windows tablet is really great, but only 16gb storage? Wtf?
 
teh_chem said:
Don't see it happening at the hundred dollar price point
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I don't think anyone a year ago expected sub $250 Windows 8 tablets but they exist now. Free Windows isn't adding any cost to these devices so they should very much come in line with Android devices with the same hardware.
 
heatlesssun said:
I don't think anyone a year ago expected sub $250 Windows 8 tablets but they exist now. Free Windows isn't adding any cost to these devices so they should very much come in line with Android devices with the same hardware.
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This was what Intel thinks x86 tablets should be priced at. Decent quality hardware devices couldn't even be sold at cost at a hundred bucks, much less a profit, much less competitive devices to popular android devices. If Windows wants to gain market share vs. Android, I wouldn't do it with crappy cheap hardware just to sell at the $100 price point.

Android is free, how many decent $100 Android tablets are there on the market?
 
teh_chem said:
Android is free, how many decent $100 Android tablets are there on the market?
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I agree with what you're saying, I've seen a ton of crappy Android tablets. But as many Windows opponents point out these days, Android is the new Windows. And both Windows and Android gained market share with cheap and crappy hardware. Hopefully Microsoft is mindful of this so that these cheap Windows tablets aren't quite as bad as their Android brethren. However in the $200 to $400 dollar range, Windows x86 tablets are showing good signs of quality with isn't something that I figure that most people would have thought a year ago.
 
16 GB? What is that, maybe 8 GB usable after Windows bloat? In 2014.?
 
It's about time. :p I imagine the cheapest ones will be using the low end Bay Trail-I models (single core, lower end GPU), so $100 models will probably be pretty slow. It's not like you get much for a new model $100 Android tablet either.

$200 x86 Windows tablets should be interesting.
 
I think it would be great if one gigabyte of memory were enough to browse the web. Wait, is that even true? Why do Chromebooks have two to four times that amount of memory?
 
Currently browsing with 50 tabs on a 1 GB Gingerbread phone. All loaded in memory, no reloading pages on switching.
 
the_servicer said:
I think it would be great if one gigabyte of memory were enough to browse the web.
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1GB with Windows 8.1 may limit the number of tabs open in a browser before swapping, depending on what other applications are running, but it should be somewhat acceptable for a low end device. 1GB shouldn't be a problem to browse with a few tabs open at once.

The niceties 1GB doesn't buy is much free memory to prefetch to speed up application launch or other in memory caching, and multi-tasking will probably leave a lot to be desired. Sluggish performance while swapping should be expected.

Why do Chromebooks come with 2GB (common) or even 4GB? Because as a feature point, it allows prices to cover the cost. Look at the lowest end Chromebooks to see what these low cost Windows devices are competing against.
 
pxc said:
Why do Chromebooks come with 2GB (common) or even 4GB? Because as a feature point, it allows prices to cover the cost. Look at the lowest end Chromebooks to see what these low cost Windows devices are competing against.
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Kind of hard to compare a low end Chromebook with many of the cheaper Windows 8 clamshell devices because Windows 8 just has a lot more capability than ChromeOS. Chromebooks don't even going to compete against Windows on tablets, that's Android's job and there are very, very few Android devices with 4 GB of RAM.
 
Just because they can or will make $100 Windows tablets doesn't mean it's going to be something you'll want to own. We have $100 (and cheaper) Android tablets and they are horrible and just a waste of money.
 
Ravynmagi said:
Just because they can or will make $100 Windows tablets doesn't mean it's going to be something you'll want to own. We have $100 (and cheaper) Android tablets and they are horrible and just a waste of money.
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I agree. The big question will be if any quality Windows devices can be made at these kinds prices. However, Here's not a lot of choice in the matter. Android didn't it's large phone and tablet market share going head to head with Apple on pricing and I don't see how Microsoft can hope to get decent tablet (and phone) market share without cheap products, even if the quality is lacking.
 
I think it will be very possible in a couple years. With system integration going the way it is you could see all the major components rolled into one "computer chip". That would greatly reduce the manufacturing costs as well as implementation costs. It also reduces real estate thus making a smaller device.

Were already starting to see intel put video memory on chip, we could very well see system memory on-board as well.
 
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