Now this is big news for Microsoft followers — the Redmond-based software giant has just made a deal with Chinese tablet manufacturing company Havnon to make business oriented laptops. This deal comes as not much of a surprise but the choice of manufacturer might leave some in a little confusion. There are a lot of other manufacturers who are more prominent than Havnon when it comes to making computing devices. But in the original report at Shanzai it is mentioned that this is a company that is well-versed in making x86 tablets. They are apparently one of the most experienced companies in Chins who make x86 tablets.
Microsoft so far has not released this news but Havnon has confirmed that the two companies have entered into an agreement where they will design tablets that will be targeted primarily at business users. The president of Havnon, Zhang Xuejun, has already made statements regarding how the tablet is a very good business tool. This is in opposition to the popular perception that the tablet is only good for multimedia, entertainment and content consumption. It must be remembered here that this conclusion about the new-age tablets only became popular when people were busy analyzing the iPad and its market impact.
Microsoft has so far been very bullish on Windows 7 being a very flexible tool that is as suited for business as it is for everything else. Microsoft has also tried to push the Windows 7 as an OS fit for tablet devices. So far, Windows 7 tablets have not made it in a big way anywhere. Most of the major computer manufacturers have not released their own Windows 7 tablets. So it is hard to say at this point how the market and consumers will react to a business tablet from Microsoft. But it is almost certain that Microsoft will be using Windows 7 on this tablet and not its mobile OS (Windows Phone 7) as is the norm of the industry at the moment.
But so far what we have seen of x86 tablets, the situation is not very conducive to making a tablet that will rival the iPad and the other ARM-based tablets. That is mainly because the poor performance to battery life ratio. The most power-efficient option that x86 has to offer so far is the Intel Atom and the chip-makers themselves have acknowledged that they are nowhere close to ARM’s power efficiency.
This the main reason why ARM chips such as the A4 and the SnapDragon are stealing the show everywhere when it comes to portable computing devices. Tablets are given such a high preference these days mainly because of their higher mobility. If this mobility is curtailed by a poor battery life, then the over all appeal of a tablet is drastically reduced. All the x86 tablets so far have this problem of having a low-power-efficiency processor that is trying to run a desktop-focussed OS like Windows XP or Windows 7.
On the other hand, mobile OS’s like iOS (Apple), WebOS (Palm, now HP) or every Windows Phone 7, are much better suited to these tight resource management situation. So if Microsoft is really going to use x86 tablets to peddle a Windows 7-based business tool — it will be interesting to see how they bridge the performance gap between the ARM-based, mobile OS running tablets and its own device.
Microsoft has been losing a lot of market share because of the iPad’s explosive growth and the prolific growth of the Android-based tablet market. Android being a robust, well-maintained and free-to-use mobile from someone as big as Google — a lot of startups and smaller device manufacturers are bringing out self-branded tablets. Together, they are diluting the marketshare of those companies that do not have tablets in the market yet. This is a situation that Redmond needs to correct as soon as possible, especially if rumors of Google bringing out a tablet are true. So it will be interesting to see what comes out of this alliance between Havnon and Microsoft.
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