Microsoft Sells Dell's Venue 8 Pro Tablet For $99 - InformationWeek

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Comments
Microsoft Sells Dell's Venue 8 Pro Tablet For $99
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ricegf
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ricegf,
 User Rank: Guru
12/8/2013 | 7:25:09 AM
Re: Good deal at $99, otherwise...
@Amicksha, certainly Apple would sell a ocean-going shipload of tablets if they put the iPad Mini on a similar $99 / $199 firesale deal. I certainly wouldn't expect that to happen this year, though, as they are holding around half the USA market while raking in profits with premium pricing. Besides, I've never noticed Apple caring one whit about market share; they seem to optimize for profits rather well, though. :-)

Amazon has the opposite philosophy - ignore profits, buy market share - and has already offered a pretty sweet $179 limited time deal (since expired) on their brand-new-for-Christmas Fire 7 HDX. Since they never publish sales figures, though, I can't evaluate the extent that it goosed sales. Pretty significant, I'd guess.

When Google put the "old" Nexus 7 on sale to clear inventory for the "new" Nexus 7 earlier this year, they were gone in a matter of hours. Thought I heard a sonic boom over Mountain View.

But who can forget the HP TouchPad 10" tablet that sold for a brief shining moment for $99 two years ago. Even with a dead-end (yet beautiful) OS, if they had put them in a physical store, it would be a black hole even today!

@aweb199, "This is a small touch computer that shared my Internet favorites, email setups, and apps out of the box".  That's a great point - a major driver in choice of tablet platform is your investment in a particular ecosystem. If you've used Apple's services for years, the iPad is the obvious choice; if Google, then Android; if Amazon, then Fire; and if Microsoft, as in your case, then Windows.

It was really only Microsoft's lack of a cloud ecosystem and very late entry into the touch market that allowed over 90% of their customers to jump to Apple and Android. It will be interesting to see if they can woo them back now. So glad you found a tablet you love! (I'd consider selling that Nexus 7 on Craigslist right now, btw - they are in pretty high demand for Christmas, even if it's the "old" version.)
awebb199
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awebb199,
 User Rank: Moderator
12/8/2013 | 1:52:09 AM
Using the same OS is more productive
Running the same Windows 8.1 OS on desktop, laptop, and tablet makes me more productive than using different ones.  I bought a Nexus 7 a year ago, and it was not productive to use a foreign environment.  It more or less sits in a drawer.  I have had a Venue 8 Pro for a week, and it is working out much better.  The Windows button position is fine, so is battery life, processor speed, and display resolution. Intel is getting much better with the new generation of Atoms, and the 3740D has the same performance as an Apple A7.

This is a small touch computer that shared my Internet favorites, email setups, and apps out of the box.  And both desktop and Store apps work on all my systems now.

 
samicksha
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samicksha,
 User Rank: Strategist
12/7/2013 | 11:27:37 PM
Re: Good deal at $99, otherwise...
I guess MS should see some good traffic at their stores with this deal, also i am little curious ..what if APPLE does same kind of discount job...
tetraclit
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tetraclit,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/7/2013 | 5:28:07 PM
20 for $99... to alienate the rest of the clueless customers
good job, monkeysoft.... you are history.
tetraclit
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tetraclit,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/7/2013 | 5:24:57 PM
Re: iPad envy
maybe because rolls royce is a wrong analogy (rolls cost > 100 X accent).

try toyota camry with Tesla S
mattt1986
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mattt1986,
 User Rank: Strategist
12/7/2013 | 2:40:28 PM
iPad envy
Why do tech writers always try to compare new tablets to the ipad,? Sure it's the gold standard... But if you are in the market for a Hyundai Accent, you probably don't care how it stacks up to a Rolls Royce. Different strokes for different folks.
ricegf
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ricegf,
 User Rank: Guru
12/7/2013 | 1:37:22 PM
Re: Good deal at $99, otherwise...
Interesting points, Jesse, thanks.

One problem with running many legacy apps on a small-screen touch Celeron-class tablet is that they run poorly - this is why so few of the first 10 years of Windows tablets sold (yes, I tried one), and why Apple didn't make a "tablet Mac" but instead an optimized incompatible touch product that conquered the market for a while. But as I said, if you have a legacy Windows-only app that you MUST run on a tablet, the Venue makes sense.

As far as accessing CAD and blueprints, most large corporations accomplish this with iPads using a cloud server (such as with Citrix) to host the application, and one of many apps on the tablet for encrypted remote access.  As a bonus, it will run FAR better than a Celeron can support - which is important especially for heavy work such as CAD (though security and data management is also a large concern).  Microsoft recommends this approach for heavy program access on their own tablets, by the way, for these reasons.

Modern programmable logic controllers can be programmed on both iPad and Android (and Windows and Linux and Macs) of course, so I'm not sure exactly where you're going with that one.

Angry Birds was actually LATE to Windows - it originally shipped for iPhone in Dec 2009, followed shortly by a version for Nokia's Linux tablets, then iPad in Apr 2010, Palm Pre in Aug 2010, and Symbian^3 and Android in Oct 2010. It arrived on Chromebooks and operating systems running the Chrome browser (including Windows) in May 2011, and last on Windows Phone in Jun 2011. Not sure that was your best choice there.

You are correct that lack of a native Facebook app was another complaint long lodged against Windows mobile devices, though that has since been remedied. Facebook is pretty ubiquitous now.

However, though I'm not the expert you are, I understand that many adult movies still require Silverlight, which is an example of a fading legacy program that I mentioned the Venue DID offer as an advantage - Silverlight was a Windows-only Flash competitor best known for keeping Mac users from watching the Olympics on-line (ahem).

So in the end I don't find your argument is very compelling. You certainly shouldn't argue app availability!   Instead, consider the Venue for what it is - a very decent and (with the current sale) fairly price-competitive alternative to the dominate iPad and Android mobile platforms. If you like it, buy it, and I'll rejoice with you!

Best wishes!

 
TylaG
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TylaG,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/7/2013 | 1:22:47 PM
Data collection
One area these can of tablets can really shine is mobile data collection. Yes, you can do it on the iPad but you're limited basically to FileMaker, a database which is at least one generation behind anything on Windows. And Android apps ares still struggling in that area. But a tablet running full Windows has quite a few alternatives -- and totally compatoible with what most folks (sigh) are still running on their desktops and/or internal networks.

 
JesseR409
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JesseR409,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/7/2013 | 12:50:08 PM
Re: Good deal at $99, otherwise...
You can share apps between your desktop, laptop and tablet on windows 8. This has not be realized yet, by many buyers. For the price of an Apple laptop, you can get a Windows 8 laptop and tablet. I can run software that is over ten years old on my windows 8 laptop. So if you want a tablet that can access CAD, blueprints, interface with a PLC, and play angry birds, then buy Win 8. But if you want to post to facebook and watch adult movies, then The A A tablets are great.
ricegf
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50%
ricegf,
 User Rank: Guru
12/7/2013 | 12:11:13 PM
Good deal at $99, otherwise...
It's a quite decent tablet and great deal for $99 despite the limited app selection, but at $199 not so much.

For example, the Kindle HDX has been selling on Amazon for $179 (bought one for my wife for Christmas, actually). It has a better 1920x1200 screen, 2.2 GHz quad-core, the (in)famous MayDay button, and of course (with Prime) an excellent infrastructure including free book and movie rentals, a free normally-paid Android app each day, excellent shopping, strong supporting cloud services, etc.

Or try the newly updated Nexus 7, with comparable specs to the Kindle HDX plus Google Play and pure Android goodness, and selling at a regular price of $189 at Walmart.

You can even get an original iPad Mini for $299 at regular price - similar specs to the Venue, but an app store overflowing with tablet-specific apps and top-shelf build quality. And it's from Apple, for those for whom that matters.

Unless you have a legacy app that you can't replace (and really want to try to run on a low-res touch screen), or just love Microsoft, or you're among the early buyers who get the $99 price, these other options look better (to me - YMMV) than the Venue 8 Pro even at the $199 sale price.

However, I'm happy for those who really *want* a decent Windows tablet at only a small premium (or a discount for the lucky first buyers) - looks like they are finally getting their wish. Merry Christmas!  :-)
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