Windows RT may not have been the belle of the ball Microsoft wished for, and many OEMs are shying away from releasing a tablet with the ARM-compatible OS, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead.
Microsoft itself is rumoured to be launching a second-generation Surface RT in the coming months, having recently discounted the initial version to $349, and Nokia, Microsoft’s only true OEM partner these days, is also planning to release a Windows RT-powered tablet.
Nokia’s rumoured Windows RT tablet was leaked by Chinese site Digwo, and shows off a matte red backing, complete with Verizon 4G LTE logo and a Windows RT insignia. Nokia is expected to debut the tablet at a special event on September 26th, and has apparently been drumming up developer support in the process. Windows RT is a version of the operating system compatible with ARM-based processors like Qualcomm’s popular Snapdragon series, but is backwards incompatible with all legacy Windows apps. The drawback, then, is that users must pick from a lacklustre group of apps available in the Windows Store.
If any company (aside from Microsoft) is going to court developers, it’s Nokia. The company has been able to earn several big-name exclusives for its Windows Phone line, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them do the same for Windows RT. What’s interesting, though, is that some of these apps may not even be available, at least at first, for Microsoft’s second-generation Surface RT, either.
The rumoured tablet will be much faster than last year’s Tegra 3-powered Surface RT, sporting a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM. It will also be LTE compatible, allowing carriers like Verizon to sell it directly to consumers on contract.
