Samsung’s transforming ATIV Tab is being taken off store shelves in parts of Europe and not because of record sales. The Windows RT-based tablet which was unveiled at IFA in Berlin last year hasn’t caught consumers attention and as such, lacklustre sales have pushed Samsung to withdraw the tablet from stores, starting in Germany.
During CeBit; currently taking place in Hannover, Germany, a representative from the Korean company told German site Heise that plans were underway to halt supply of the ATIV Tab to local retailers as a result of lacklustre sales via poor uptake of Windows RT. The 10-inch tablet already demanded a high price tag when considering the specs, partly down to the added functionality provided by the optional keyboard dock.
The internals of the ATIV Tab include a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage with microSD support up to 64GB on top, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 1.9-megapixel front facer and of course a 10.1-inch HD (1136×768 resolution) LCD panel, but for what could be considered mid-range specs and based on the fact it sports a relatively under developed operating system in the form Windows RT, the €580 asking price hadn’t placed it in an appealing position for consumers.
This trends removes Samsung entirely from the Windows RT game and they’re planning to halt supplies elsewhere in Europe too leaving only the likes of Dell, Asus, Lenovo and of course Microsoft to carry the tablet OS forward. With this dwindling number of RT supporters on the board and the price gap between Windows RT and Windows 8 relatively small, how much longer do you suspect the Microsoft’s tablet-specific user experience will last before the mobile and desktop experiences bridge the gap entirely?
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