Samsung Cancels Plans for Windows RT Tablet PC

Last week, Infopackets reported a story about California cat burglars stealing only Apple iPads from a Microsoft office in Silicon Valley. Left behind, according to reports, were many Microsoft-brand smartphones and tablet devices.

Now here's more bad publicity for Microsoft: Samsung says it has decided to cancel plans to build a tablet computer running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system.

Samsung first announced plans for its 10.1-inch ATIV Tab tablet computer last year. The firm said it would build the device around an ARM-based processor and Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, which shares characteristics with Windows 8 but is said to be specially designed for tablet PCs and smartphones.

Samsung on Windows RT: Too Much "Heavy Lifting"

However, it now appears plans for Samsung's ATIV Tab have now been nixed. In an interview last week, Samsung USA's senior vice president of PC and tablet businesses, Mike Abrary, said his firm had learned that demand for Windows RT-based devices was low. (Source: bgr.com)

"When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was," Abrary said. (Source: cnet.com)

"And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment," Abrary added. "When we added those two things up ... plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait."

Windows RT Revival Unlikely

Abrary left open the possibility that Samsung could still produce the ATIV Tab later on, should Windows RT prove successful enough on other platforms (including Microsoft's own Surface tablet PC).

However, most experts suggest such a turnaround is unlikely.

Samsung is not the only major PC manufacturer that has canceled plans to release a Windows RT-based tablet computer. Citing concerns similar to those voiced by Abrary, Hewlett-Packard (HP) had previously decided to hold off on producing a Windows RT-based slate-style device.