Intel Corp (INTC)

[Unkwn]

we were talking about the Surface RT (and why it failed..right??)

Microsoft sure seems to think it's a tablet...

You will see: It will do a lot better than it's predecessor and that's simply due to full Windows on x86.

The discussion about what it is, is just stupid, since the category already exists and is called 2 in 1, something that is only available with Windows and x86. People buy this because they want a netbook like device for surfing the web but want the portability of a tablet for content consumption. From time to time, they may want to run a full Windows application without having to compromise too much on speed and ergonomics, something only these devices deliver. Since most tablets seem to have the useless status right now, this is a nice segment for Intel and Microsoft, which isn't served by Apple or Google.

These seem to already grab quite a chunk of the tablet business (yep, not just phablets) and this may even be the future for tablets, since 2 in 1s are not as useless. Windows 8, with its awful user experience (and no, I don't blame Modern UI in particular but the overall usability), is holding them back but we'll see with Windows 10. I think it has a lot of market potential but it depends much more on Microsoft than on Intel whether it will be a success.

Despite all this, the Surface is way too expensive, in a market where you can find decent 2 in 1s already for half its price.