Just a couple days after Microsoft lifted the veil on its new tablet-optimized software, at least one analyst is already predicting bold things.
In fact, this is very bold. RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Breza believes the new Windows 8 tablet software will be so powerful, it will bring Microsft to a position of holding 15% of the tablet market share by 2014.
Keep in mind that a lot could change between now and 2014, but it certainly looks like the iPad is going nowhere any time soon.
Of course, there are a lot of things rumbling in the Android tablet universe right now too, but given the impact Google has had on the tablet world so far, it’s still up in the air as to whether or not it will reach a point of significant market share.
The new Windows tablet interface does look impressive and has gained strong reception from those who got to play around with it in person.
Microsoft is calling the new interface “Metro UI,” and it allows users to have complete customization on their home page, including widgets, RSS readers, weather information, date/time, etc.
Metro UI will also have deep multitasking chops, giving users the ability to easily toggle back and forth between different apps and websites. The prototype unit shown at BUILD looks similar to an iPad, with virtually no buttons on the device itself. Microsoft wants touch input to be the main control mechanism, but in a way that’s new and different – not just tapping, but swiping and gesturing.
One thing ARM-based tablets won’t do, though, is run legacy Windows applications – despite earlier reports to the contrary, something which could give x86 tablets a market advantage.
This is just a first look at what Windows 8 tablets will offer when they reach the market. The question is when that will actually happen. The question after that is – how many people will buy it?
