Windows 8 Will Disrupt Mobile Device Market in 2013

With just two weeks until the launch of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, enterprises face a host of difficult decisions about what devices and operating systems to support in their organization given pricing and compatibility issues with the various new offerings.

The expression “may you live in interesting times,” can be a Chinese proverb or a Chinese curse, depending on your perspective, and the launch of Windows 8 and its potential impact in the world of Android and iOS is expected to bring interesting times to enterprises in 2013.

“We’re looking at a year of tremendous confusion and experimentation in 2013, but also a year of tremendous opportunity,” said Leslie Fiering, a research vice president at Gartner, who sought, in a Web cast on 11 October, to guide IT administrators through the turbulent waters ahead. Fiering expects competing devices based on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS to remain strong even as Windows 8 hits the market.

Windows 8 goes on sale on 26 October, as do devices running the OS from such OEMs as Acer, Dell, Lenovo and others. At the same time, Microsoft will launch its own Windows 8 device, Surface.

They enter a market in which Apple’s iPhone and iPad, along with various devices running Android, are the market leaders. Enterprises, even if they are predominantly Windows shops now, face compatibility issues with existing Windows 7 systems and the new Windows 8 while simultaneously trying to accommodate Android and iOS, Fiering said.

As new and shiny as the heavily marketed Windows 8 devices might be, buyers, meaning employees bringing their own devices to work, will have to decide if they are worth their initially hefty prices, compared to Android tablets under $200 (£125) that may be “good enough,” she said.

What’s confusing is the different capabilities of laptops and various tablets when compared with Ultrabooks that may combine the benefits of both form factors. During her Web cast, Fiering displayed what she described as a “spider chart” that laid out all the desirable attributes of desktop and mobile devices and how various devices accommodated them. These attributes included connectivity, portability, “pocketability,” content creation, content consumption and usability.

They’re all desirable characteristics, but they can’t all be included in one product. It’s like a shopper looking for a suitcase that holds all of their clothes for a week-long trip, but fits in the overhead bin.

As the market shakes out, Fiering said, people will have to determine whether their new gadget is a notebook replacement, a notebook companion or a companion to their enterprise-supported desktop computer.

Windows 8 is coming out in two variations, Windows RT for devices running ARM-based processors and Windows Pro 8 for devices running x86-based processors. The first influx of devices will be tablets or convertible notebook/tablets running Windows RT, which do not easily interoperate with legacy Windows apps in the enterprise. Users can expect to encounter formatting glitches when viewing a document created in Windows XP or 7 on a Windows RT tablet, she said.

“That may not matter for a draft or for internal communications, but if you’ve got regulatory documents, legal documents or customer-facing documents it can get to be very important,” Fiering said. One definite plus, however, is that Windows RT supports the same document management and security controls that Windows-based enterprises want as they accommodate the new OS.

But the new Windows RT devices unveiled so far tend to be a little pricey. The Lenovo lineup introduced on 9 October includes the top-of-the-line IdeaTab Lynx with a starting price of $1,100 (£680). Dell introduced an XPS 12 convertible priced at $1,200 (£745) and Acer offers a series of models ranging in price from $800 (£495) to $1,000 (£620).

IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell warned that those devices may be overpriced.

“Look at the history of tablet products priced above the iPad. Not pretty,” O’Donnell told Cnet.

Likewise, new Windows 8 tablets and convertibles will also be compared to Ultrabooks, lightweight computers based on Intel processors that combine some of the best features of tablets and notebooks, said Fiering. Tablets are prized for being lightweight and portable but their 10-inch screens may not have as much “real estate” for images as a 12-inch notebook. But a 12-inch tablet isn’t as portable as a 10-inch. Enter the ultrabook, which is lightweight and offers a 12-inch screen. The model design for the Ultrabook is the Apple MacBook Air, she said.

All this means more choices and confusion for buyers and IT managers.

“The competition is going to make your job a little more difficult over the next year until we start to see winners emerge,” Fiering said to IT managers.

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Originally published on eWeek.