Samsung abandons Windows RT tablets

The Korean vendor does not want to launch a line of “tablets” running the ARM version of Windows 8 in the United States, because Americans are not interested in tablets running on Microsoft’s mobile OS.

At the CES exhibition in Las Vegas, Mike Abary, Samsung’s vice president for PCs and tablets in the United States, told CNET correspondents that his company does not intend to sell Windows RT devices in the States. It is unclear whether the company is going to implement them in other regions.

There are two reasons for this policy. Firstly, Samsung’s retail partners in America note a low demand for such products. Secondly, the Koreans calculated that they would need to invest huge investments in advertising to explain the advantages of Windows RT. 

“When we put it together: the investment needed to explain the difference between Windows RT and Windows 8, plus the weak response we received from our retail partners to the question of whether we would get the investment back, we decided that we should wait,” Abari clarifies.

Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba have already abandoned the production of Windows RT tablets. Considering that the situation with “tablets” on a full-fledged Windows 8 is still not entirely clear (according to rumors, they hold a charge of no more than 4-5 hours, and are also very heavy), we can assume that at this stage Microsoft is suffering a fiasco in the tablet market.