Finally after being one of the first to unveil its stable of Windows 8 devices way before the launch of Microsoft’s new touch-enabled OS, Samsung finally has a price to the flagship ATIV Smart PC and it is at an attractive PHP 35,000.00. This is for the “entry” level Smart PC running the new Atom processor.
UPDATE: The official #Windows8PH site is now live at www.windows.com.ph
Earlier today Michael Josh of Rapper asked me if I wanted to do a live blog of the Windows 8 launch in Singapore. I had no problem with that as it also made my live coverage so much easier with ScribbleLive. You can view the feed here for a detailed account of what went on earlier this afternoon.
To give you the highlights:
The much awaited Surface tablet will not be making a coming in the Philippines and other parts of Asia except Australia. ‘Surface’ is a Microsoft-made hybrid tablet running Windows 8. This was confirmed earlier by Ms Tracy Fellows, VP for Microsoft Asia Pacific. The main reason (I surmise) is two fold:
a. In the Philippines, Microsoft is not a hardware company. There is no support system for Surface in terms of warranty. If it breaks, who will fix it? The case is similar for the XBOX 360 which is not officially an effort of Microsoft Philippines, but of 3rd party vendors like DataBlitz.
b. Releasing Surface in APAC can curb relationships with the big manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Lenovo, and ACER — all very strong players in the Asean market.
On another note, Christian Bautista is the new brand ambassador for Windows 8. He was chosen for being an all around “Windows guy” and avid gamer. As of this writing he is currently engrossed in Mass Effect 3.
On the XBOX front, the new Windows 8 will have seamless integration with XBOX and the GamerTag. XBOX will now include Music, Video, Games and Smart Glass, which is a technology that gives you added in-game information on your tablet while playing games on your PC / XBOX 360.
OK two things here:
Villman is selling the new 16GB Google Nexus 7 at PHP 18,000 pesos. That’s twice the price in retail when you buy the device in the USA. Stocks are limited and that’s what you get when demand is high. It’s actually a bad deal if you think about it — you’re paying more than twice the price for this device if you peg the dollar at PHP 44 (total SRP should be around PHP 8,600.00) which is an amazing steal that destroys all other affordable tablets the local scene.
But then you also have to realize that Google is HALTING new orders for the new 16GB tablet, making only the 8GB model available for sale on the Play store.
The company has now halted further orders of the 16GB version of the tablet, costing £199, on its Google Play store in the US and UK. Orders made in the period up to the end of last week are due to be fulfilled, but a shortage of stock now means a hiatus in sales.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s forever gone. It’s more like .. are you willing to pay almost twice the price of an affordable tablet or wait a bit longer?
I go for WAITING. And this is for the simple reason that the USD $200 SRP is a feature of the device and paying anything more than that mitigates the amazing price point. If you’re going to pay PHP 18,000 for this tablet, you might as well have gotten an iPad.
[info c/o John Nieves]
(Ed’s Note: This piece is a work in progress)
Google Nexus 7 Tablet. Yay!
So if you live in the Philippines, the announcement of the Google’s new Nexus 7″ “reading device” by ASUS should bring good news of great joy. Here’s the context: my father in law owns a Kindle Fire (apart from the more traditional Kindle) and if its one thing that it can’t do locally, it’s really almost everything. The Fire makes use of the Kindle sign in credentials and not your Google account which means you’re pretty much screwed if you’re going to avail of the cloud services and app downloads. No international support. This is odd because everything works fine on a “regular” Kindle.
Enter Google’s Nexus 7 tablet. The video says it all. I’m impressed by the tech, but really the one thing that’s got me excited is the fact that I’ll be able to do everything the Kindle Fire does but using Google’s sign in process. In short: It’s international and won’t be a $199.00 brick when it arrives in the Philippines.
The Google I/O conference will focus on the content you can access with the new affordable Nexus 7 by ASUS.