Samsung won't bring Windows RT tablets to the US!
Samsung has confirmed to CNet that they will not be launching the Ativ Tab in the United States of America. Samsung's Senior Vice President of the US PC and Tablet arm of the company, Mike Abary, explained that there are two main reasons for not offering the device, which will be a setback for Microsoft's plans on ARM processors.
Firstly, Abary explained that initial feedback from resellers has suggested that there is only limited demand for Windows RT devices. The only way to change that would be to educate people on the reason for Windows RT compared to fully-fledged Windows 8, something which Samsung feels would be too time consuming and expensive to bother with. His full quote to CNet reads:
"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 final issue was the cost of building the Ativ Tab doesn't necessarily provide the value for money that Windows RT devices should offer over their Windows 8 cousins. So that is why the Ativ Tab is relatively expensive compared to Android tablets and this was another factor in Samsung's decision!
What do you think? Are you disappointed that you can't pick one up inside America? Let us know in the comments below!
Via CNet.
Gaming figures from 2012 are in! Xbox and PS3 sales were good, but what about the Nintendo's consoles and game sales?
Everyone in the gaming world knows that Microsoft's Xbox 360 is an insanely popular platform. It might have launched a two years before Sony's PS3 and as such it lacks the Blu-ray drive and some of the performance of Sony's device, but it makes up for that in terms of price and the number of users it has.
2012 then was again a great year for Microsoft in the gaming department, the Xbox 360 ended up as the year's best-selling console in the U.S, shipping an impressive 1.4 million units just in December, something NPD's researchers described as a "dominant" position. But, if the rest of the world is taken into account over the whole of the year then Sony's PS3 finally overtook Microsoft's Xbox 360 in sales figures. Sony shipped 77 million worldwide compared to Microsoft's 76 million shipments. IDC noted that this figure is likely down on past years because the more hardcore buyers are waiting for the next generation of consoles to launch.
The Wii U however, was the only major console to launch this year and it sold nearly 890,000 units in the US during the first 41 days of availability and 460,000 of the console were sold in December, which is 15,000 less than the sales for the original Wii console. If you were to ask Nintendo their thoughts on that then they'd actually say that was a positive because the Wii U has generated $30 million more from those sales numbers because the Wii U is a pricer set up. Naturally Nintendo's handhelds did well: the 3DS pulled in 1.25 million buyers in December and the normal DS sold a surprisingly high 470,000 units!
Taking the year as a whole though things don't look so rosy for the games industry. There was a pretty steep decline in video games sales compared to 2011 and hardware sales dropped 27 percent to somewhere around $4.04 billion for the year.
If you're interested in which games turned out to be the most popular then you'll find the list looks like this:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
- Madden NFL 13
- Halo 4
- Assassin's Creed 3
- Just Dance 4
- NBA 2K13
- Borderlands 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- FIFA Soccer 13
So there wasn't too many surprises there! But, what do you think 2013 will hold? Any games you're really looking forward to seeing this year? Let us know in the comments below!
Joystiq and GamesIndustry Via Engadget and OfficialMicrosoftBlog.
Joystiq and GamesIndustry Via Engadget and OfficialMicrosoftBlog.
In other news:
- Some European users of Blackberry smartphones may not have been receiving emails today! The issue is specific to Vodafone customers and they are "working closely with Research in Motion (RIM) to restore full service as soon as possible. As soon as [they] have further information [they] will provide additional updates."
We'll let you know when the service is back online! The issue should now be resolved!
Via Reuters.
- Google has launched a new version of Chrome, Chrome Beta, into the Play Store. If you're slightly puzzled as to why this Beta is available it's because Google will test new Chrome features in the Beta before it adds them to the fully fledged version! If you're interested in the new app you can get it on the Play Store here! The app will work with both phones and tablets!
- In a bid to prevent spam Facebook is currently testing various prices to send messages to people you are not friends with! The current cost of sending a message to Mark Zuckerberg then? $100! That should undoubtedly put a fair few people off! There's also been experimentation with $1 pricing and we're not currently sure what Facebook will decide is a suitable amount!
Via TheVerge.
- For the first time in ten years PC sales were down this year. PC manufacturers shipped 89.8 million PCs worldwide, according to IDC, in the fourth quarter of last year, down 6.4 percent from the same quarter of 2011. These sales figures were worse than most people had expected. For the whole year things weren't too much better with 352 million PCs sold in 2012. This was a decline of 3.2 percent from 2011 and it was the first annual decline since 2001. IDC's David Daoud said that, "Consumers expected all sorts of cool PCs with tablet and touch capabilities. Instead, they mostly saw traditional PCs that feature a new OS (Windows 8)," so were slightly disappointed by the offerings for the big tech companies.
Via Reuters.
- Sprint has told The Verge that they have "plans to bring BlackBerry 10 devices to [their] customers later this year," so don't worry guys you won't be out of the BB10 loop either!
Via TheVerge.
And finally, below is a very brief seven second clip of Blackberry's new BBM video calling option! It looks like a nice addition and should be very well received by those of you rocking your 'berry!
Via Rapidberry.
Via Rapidberry.
