Windows RT – End of the road

Microsoft has all but confirmed the end of RT.

• Microsoft has finally confirmed what I have long suspected which is that Windows RT will be killed off sooner rather than later.
• Always one to treat hot potatoes delicately, Microsoft has not explicitly said that RT will be terminated but has made it very clear that there will not be three operating systems.
• Windows RT is an orphan child that sits between Windows 8 and Windows Phone and is neither fish nor fowl.
• Hence the devices that are based on it are underpowered with hideously limited functionality on the desktop making them inferior to both Android and iOS tablets.
• The result has been, virtually no sales to users, a massive write off of inventory by Microsoft and no support for the platform by any company outside of Microsoft.
• Hence, I suspect that there will be no Surface 3 and no successor to the Nokia 2520.
• Furthermore I am confident that RT will be quietly put to sleep during 2014.
• Microsoft aims to bring Windows 8 and Windows Phone closer together and I would not be surprised to see elements of RT being incorporated into Windows Phone over time.
• With this trajectory in mind, I suspect that volume commitments to the Surface 2 and the Nokia 2520 are almost non-existent.
• Hence I am pretty certain that there will be no repeat of the huge write-off endured by Microsoft for either company.
• I view this as excellent news as Microsoft is being more pragmatic in its approach to strategies that don’t work.
• If Microsoft can apply this pragmatism to the rest of the company and to its choice of CEO, we might just have a phoenix rather than a turkey.