But Will It Make A Difference This Late in The Game for Microsoft ?
Melbourne Australia
19 July 2013
The Computer Business is Fickle. Recent Stats from Gartner and others show a steady decline in PC Sales, but tablets, laptops and hybrid tablet/PCs are not counted in the equation. So is the market on the decline or just evolving, who knows.
However, in terms of tablets, as an early Windows 8 adopter and more recently, an early Windows 8 tablet adopter as well, I was prepared for the challenges. As I have written previously, had a windows 8 or 7 tablet come out in July 2009 when Windows 7 launched, I am sure others would have hailed it amazing. It took Apple another year to launch the iPad in April 2010 for amazing to happen.
In my case I purchased the Asus ME400c recently for review, it has the Intel Atom Z2760 CPU and a battery that gives an industry tested (per PC World) 8.5 hours. Better than the HP Envy at 7 hours and less than the Lenovo TP2 with over 10 hours. For the price as a test device I was pretty impressed at @$450AU RRP.
There were GREAT challenges of course. The Windows OSK (on screen keyboard) for a tablet is lousy at best. Especially when compared to an iPad or an Android device like my Samsung Nexus 10.1, but again living in a Microsoft eco-sphere at least partially means compromises. Sometimes though it is so bad you have to hold down a screen then keep it held down press a keyboard key to stop the keyboard going away again, buggy at best.
SO an upgrade to windows 8.1 Preview in my mind could not be any worse hopefully. The first challenge is actually getting 8.1 onto my tablet. With a 6mb Wi-Fi connection and trying to get it to connect to the Microsoft Server in Australia to download meant an hour in it was only 5% in. Downloading Windows 8.1 to PC, then sharing it across a network saved heaps of time. As soon as windows 8 was detected the tablet said it needed to download some KB updates before it could install windows 8.1. About 30 minutes later all was done including install, but there were more than a few problems. Going to check updates again post 8.1 meant the installation of more KB updates. This is interesting as it is the same update it installed prior to installation.
My guess is it needs some drivers form the update and others after, but perhaps I am just being simplistic. So after the pre-install, and post install there are around 30 KB updates made to enable 8.1. However the last ones make it very worthwhile. There were some niggly issues right after install, that these updates seem to address.
All and all the update makes a huge difference. I am just not sure with all the confusion and some apathy from suppliers, around the RT, Windows 8, now Windows 8.1 and lack of support etc, I am not sure who will bother
About The Author
Loren W.
After running an ISP or two, then as a product manager for one of the largest telcos in the world, I went on to introduce something called business broadband in the UK and then several other cloud services in the UK and here in Australia (man this dude is old).
Tech Net TV - 