Earlier this week, Acer officially revealed the 8.1-inch Windows 8 Iconia W3 tablet. It's the first of what could be many smaller Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 devices that will be released in the coming months. However, there have been some questions about how well the OS will work with tablets that have displays smaller than 10 inches.
In a new interview at PCWorld.com, Nick Parker, the head of Microsoft's OEM division, said they have allowed PC makers some leg room in terms of making smaller Windows 8 and 8.1 tablets. He stated:
For any device you can hold in one hand, one of the things you need is portrait mode—so, the ability for the apps to work in the same way, to move and to flow nicely. And for our OEMs, we’re giving them the ability to have buttons on the side of the device, because when you’re holding it in one hand you might want to push a button on the side. You have to make the OS extensible. So those are the types of things.
Parker also said that Windows 8.1 would have better support for zooming and scaling on smaller displays but did not go into specifics, suggesting that we will have to wait for the free preview version later in June to check out those features.
In terms of prices for these tablets, Parker said that they are set by PC OEMs but hinted consumers should not expect the costs of those products to be rock bottom like the sub $150 prices many Android-based devices have. He said, "I think people are prepared to pay for value and we see tablets with higher price points having better capabilities and features."
Parker also talked a bit about the overall poor reaction to Windows RT devices have had so far from consumers. He said:
We get so used to the tremendous success we’ve had on PCs for years, you just think you can flip a switch and the platform’s going to change. I think it’s just the incremental growth of a new platform. And we should be a bit humble about how we go to market and talk about the new capabilities. I think we could maybe have inspired people a bit more with some of the RT devices and some of our marketing.
Finally, Parker said that while we will see more and more PCs with touchscreen support, physical keyboards will still be around, "You may see a lot of innovation around keyboards but I think they’re here to stay."
Source: PCWorld.com
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