TECH NEWS: Samsung cancels plans for Windows RT tablet in the US

With so many companies having unveiled their Windows RT tablets, eyes were on one of the biggest companies—Samsung. According to CNET, though, Samsung seems to be having second thoughts about the operating system. Samsung Senior Vice President Mike Abary told CNET at CES that the Korean company will not be launching its Qualcomm-powered Windows RT Ativ tablet in the US.

Abary said that the company has reached the decision about the Ativ Tab for two reasons. Feedback from its retail partners showed that the demand for the tablet would only be modest, and Samsung determined that the cost associated with informing customers about Windows RT wouldn't be worth it.

Probably won't see a release in the US

According to Abary: "There wasn't really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. 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. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, 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."

The pricing of the device was also a major factor in the decision. "We didn't necessarily attain the price point that we hoped to attain," Abary said. "It's not an issue on Microsoft's side. It's more an issue of how the product was built and some of the tradeoffs we had to incorporate in it." The company would have had to make tradeoffs, such as reducing memory, to bring the price of the device down, and Samsung wasn't willing to do it.

Samsung had announced the Ativ Tab back in August 2012 during the IFA. With the introduction of Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems, Samsung introduced “ATIV”, the new brand for its Windows-based devices. ATIV, the reverse order of the word VITA, which means “Life” in Latin.

The new Samsung ATIV Tab is designed with a hairline finish and delivers a full Windows 8-based PC experience with tablet mobility. Weighing 570g, featuring a 10.1-inch display and measuring 8.9mm thick, the ATIV Tab is always ready to go. It instantly boots up without lagging and comes with Office Home and Student 2013 RT, offering the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to help transform the way people get things done at home, school or work. 

These applications are fully featured with complete document compatibility, meaning people can open and create any document, make edits on it and share it with others just like we do with PCs. An 8,200 mAh battery provides enough power to allow you to work on your projects and review or share them virtually anytime and anywhere. Moreover, the ATIV Tab is compatible with a range of Windows-based PC devices and accessories, including printers, keyboards, projectors, external monitors and other peripherals, through its USB port and uHDMI, with no need to install extra software.