Struggling to compete up against the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy tablets, Microsoft has again had a crack at trying to be a player in the Windows tablet market, despite the fact that the Windows OS has very little in the way of app support when compared to their competitors.
Microsoft has launched the Surface 3 in a push to create a tablet that is powerful enough to replace a laptop. This is despite the fact that Lenovo already has an excellent 10″ Windows tablet/ PC.
The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows is a $499 device that comes with a built-in kickstand and a high-resolution 10-inch display. It has Windows 8.1 and can be upgraded to Windows 10.
Microsoft who is now competing head on with their own long time Windows device partners such as Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus revealed their new 10.8-inch HD tablet yesterday.
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It is optimised to run full Windows 8.1 and Office and Microsoft claims that users will get 10 hours of video-playback battery life.
Owners will also be able to upgrade to Windows 10 once the software becomes available later this year.
It is powered by a bottom end quad-core Intel Atom x7 processor it also has stereo Dolby Audio speakers despite the fact that most tablet users use headphones.
The Surface Type 3 Cover has an inbuilt magnetic-clip keyboard and Surface Pen, available in silver, black, blue and red, however Microsoft will sting you an additional $90 for they keyboard.
Customers will receive a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal and OneDrive cloud storage.
“We’ve taken everything we learned making Surface Pro 3 and poured that innovation into this newest Surface. It’s beautiful, versatile, powerful and productive, and our customers are going to love what it lets them do.” a Microsoft executive gushed.
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Market research firm IDC predicts that both Android’s and iOS’ market shares will decline in the future. It also predicts the market share for Windows-based tablet will increase by more than double between now and 2018, from 4.6% to 11.4%.
Last year Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 3 tablet-with a 12″ screen.
Microsoft claimed this tablet could replace laptops, serving a two-in-one purpose as both tablet and laptop.
During the launch event, Microsoft said that they were targeting Apple, claiming that the Surface Pro 3 could replace both the iPad Air and MacBook Air, so consumers need not carry two devices.
Despite these claims more people are buying Apple and Samsung tablets than those from Microsoft.
Microsoft are also under pressure in the OS market with both individuals and Companies deserting the Windows OS and Office Suite of tools for Chrome and Android. In Australia Companies like Woolworths have dumped Windows based devices, instead they are buying tens of thousands of Google Chromebooks that run Google Apps.
