It appears that Samsung is having second thoughts about Windows RT. The company this week revealed that it will not launch its Samsung ATIV Tab tablet in the U.S. Its plans for other global markets are also in doubt at this point. Mike Abary, the Sasmung senior vice president who heads up the company’s US PC and tablet group, told CNET that demand for Windows RT devices is just not high enough. Not only is retailer interest low but it appears that consumers don’t quite grasp what Windows RT is and offers. 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.”
Abary does not rule out future devices powered by Windows RT. “We want to see how the market develops for RT,” Abary said. “It’s not something we’re shelving permanently. It’s still a viable option for us in the future, but now might not be the right time.” Samsung is not the only manufacturer to come to such a conclusion either. Both HP and Toshiba have also taken a wait-and-see attitude.
Samsung first unveiled the ATIV Tab at IFA back in August along with the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Galaxy Camera.
Alongside the already available Microsoft Surface RT, ASUS, Dell and HTC are also expected to offer Windows RT devices later this year.
Read more: CNET