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!
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12/8/2013 | 7:25:09 AM
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.)