Remember how we told you not too long ago that Microsoft was being smart by working on a tablet friendly version of Windows 8? (Which they have been trying very hard to screw up) Well, one of the things we said about this was the people want a tablet that can do real production work. We have seen this in our own tinkering with multiple tablets from the iPad, iPad2, Transformer and the Flagship tablet, the Asus EEE Slate EP 121. Out of all of these, the only one that we can actually do full production work on is the EP121. Oddly enough (not really) it is also the only one of the group that runs on Windows 7.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the Transformer (we will have a review of that up soon) for its versatility and ease of use. It is a great little tool and easy to transport. However, there are no real productivity apps available for it. I have tried all of the office suites from Documents to Go, Apple’s Pages, to Quick Office. None of them can compete with Office 2010; even Pages (which comes closest) cannot cut it. The tools and flow are not there, it is as simple as that.

It seems that this is not just my opinion on the subject, but a majority of consumers in both the US and China. According to a poll taken by the Boston Consulting Group and another one by Forrester earlier this year over 40 % of US consumers would like a Windows Based Tablet.  BCG’s numbers came in at 42% while the Forrester report showed a nice 46% wanted a Windows based tablet.  The remaining 50%+ was not all iOS either. Forrester claimed that 9% were interested in Android while 16% wanted iOS. BCG’s study claimed that 20% were interested in Android while 27% were looking into an iOS based tablet.

These numbers are only shocking when you leave out what people really want from their devices. They want a seamless experience. One thing that bugs me about having a desktop, laptop, and two different tablets is that to do anything on the Transformer I have to format it differently (especially videos). On the other Windows based devices, I just move files back and forth or put them in my Asus Cloud Drive account (if they are not important or need security).  Of course it also does not mean they want something like the EP121. While I love my EEE Slate, it can be bulky and is awkward to use with the keyboard at times. No what they want is something like the Tab or the Transformer, but running all of their favorite Windows software (including Office); this is what will finally bring the tablet home for many people.

So it seems that I am not the only one that feels that Windows is making the right (if somewhat late) move to a more tablet based OS and will only increase their potential for profit by coding for ARM (something they should have done with Windows 7).  Of course… that is saying they do not alienate all of their potential customers by failing to grasp what the market really wants in a tablet.

Source All things D

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