Today’s business jargon gem: TAM, Total Addressable Market. AMD feels that Windows 8 comes with plenty of the stuff, so it sees no commercial need to make its forthcoming tablet chip — codenamed Hondo — play nice with Android as well. Speaking to The Inquirer, corporate VP Steve Belt said it was a “conscious decision” not to go after compatibility with Google’s OS, because AMD doesn’t want to spread itself into “other markets.” What could this mean for us tablet-buyers? No dual-booting Windows / Android magic on AMD devices, for one thing, which is perhaps a shame now that ASUS has shown off the combo’s potential. On the other hand, Belt made it clear that Hondo will support Linux, which — for now, at least — is more than can be said of Intel’s rival low-power silicon, Clover Trail.

SOURCE via The Inquirer

Windows 8 tablets have had their specs bandied about for months, but their prices have continued to remain off the radar. Now, however, a purported ASUS holiday roadmap sent to ZDNet may give us a glimpse as to how badly bank accounts could be affected this fall. According to the slide, the ASUS Vivo Tab will carry a $799 price tag and its Windows RT counterpart will come in at $599, which matches the previously reported price difference between slates running Redmond’s latest OS with Intel and AMD processors. The ASUS Taichi dual-screen notebook / tablet hybrid is said to ring up at a heftier $1,299. As for the firm’s Transformer Book, it will supposedly set purchasers back $1,399. If these prices are any indication of what we can expect from other OEMs, Microsoft’s Surface might be pricier than hoped.

SOURCE via Zdnet

Samsung’s busy cranking out its fall lineup in Berlin, and among the new entries is the ATIV Tab, a Windows RT-packing cousin of the Galaxy Note 10.1. The new 10.1-inch slate isn’t quite as aggressive as its Android counterpart and centers on a 1,366 x 768 display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 5MP rear camera paired with a 1.9MP front-facing cam, and ports for micro-HDMI as well as USB. Dimensionally, the tablet is as light and skinny as you’d hope: it weighs 20.1 ounces (570g) and measures a slim 8.9mm thick. The 32GB and 64GB storage options aren’t shockers given the extra space Windows and the bundled copy of Office 2013 Home and Student 2013 will demand, but there’s a treat for long-haul users in the battery — it’s been upgraded from the 7,000maH pack of the Note 10.1 to an ample 8,200mAh unit. Samsung hasn’t handed out launch details, but it’s safe to say that the ATIV Tab won’t arrive any sooner than October 26th.

Microsoft and its OEM partners haven’t been particularly forthcoming on how much the first round of Windows 8 tablets are going to cost, but one Lenovo executive just gave us a hint. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, David Schmoock, Senior VP of Lenovo’s North American division, said that full-on Windows 8 tablets would ring up between $600 and $700, noting that ARM-based Windows RT slates would sell for $200 to $300 less. “RT will play in consumer and retail at very aggressive price points,” he said. This echoes previous reports that suggested Microsoft would introduce the Surface with a competitive $200 price tag. The Lenovo VP didn’t reveal any specific prices, of course, but his estimates would put the ThinkPad Tablet 2 somewhere between $300 and $500. Schmoock also commented on Ultrabook sales, stating that he didn’t think Intel would meet its lofty saturation goals: 40 percent of the market by the end of 2012. “They’ll be a lot bigger than they are now,” he admitted, “but I don’t know if it will get all the way up to 40 percent.”

SOURCE via Bloomberg

Microsoft was quick to champion its new Windows RT partners, but it’ll have to count one out. Toshiba has opted not to join the ARM crowd at first and will limit itself to Intel-based Windows 8 systems, at least in the early days. The abstinence isn’t coming from any misgivings about the platform — there are unnamed “delayed components” that would make it “impossible” to put out a Windows RT system on time, Toshiba’s Eric Paulsen says. There’s no mention of when the company might dip its toe in the pool later on, and we’re not getting any reassuring signs that it’s anytime soon given that the firm is only “monitoring market conditions” rather than committing to a plan. Although Toshiba isn’t hurting for tablets given an abundance of Excite devices, the absence narrows an ecosystem that Microsoft was no doubt hoping would grow wider.

SOURCE via Slashgear

We’ve known for a while that NVIDIA is working with Lenovo (and ASUS) on a Windows RT Tablet, but ABC News believes that we might already have seen the mystery device in action. Its sources have let slip that alongside the Intel-powered IdeaPad Yoga laptop / tablet hybrid (LapLet? TabTop?), the company will release a Tegra-powered version running Windows RT, combining the same sexy hardware with ARM’s power-sipping technology. If true, then we might have a very tough purchasing decision on our hands when the gear arrives — with the launch date still expected to be on October 26th.

SOURCE via ABC News

If you’ve been paying attention, you not only knew Lenovo was readying a ThinkPad-branded Windows 8 tablet, but you probably already noticed all the leaked specs, too. Indeed, we first saw this thing all the way back at Computex, where Lenovo gave us a fairly hands-off peek, taking care to conceal most of the device’s specs. Later, it turned up in the FCC and in official documents, letting us know the slate would actually be arriving quite soon.

And here it is! As we previously reported, this is a 10-inch slate running Windows 8 and an Intel Atom processor. And yes, it will replace the current ThinkPad Tablet, which runs Android. Other key specs include a 1,366 x 768 IPS display, a 10-hour battery, optional 3G / 4G, micro-HDMI output and a pair of 2MP / 8MP cameras. For the most part, that cellular connection will take the form of HSPA+ but in the US, at least, the tablet will be available on AT&T’s LTE network. And, as we learned in more recent leaks, this 9.8mm-thick tablet makes room for an NFC radio, along with a fingerprint reader and a pen, which can be stowed in a slot on the tablet. Additionally, it will be sold alongside an optional keyboard, as well as a dock with three USB ports, HDMI-out and an Ethernet jack.

The one thing we don’t know? The price. So far, Lenovo is only saying the tablet will be available in October, when Windows 8 starts shipping.

HP’s Make it Matter site features a shot of a medical-type person using a mysterious device that’s the spitting image of one we saw in July. While the company’s made no secret of its plans for a Windows 8 tablet, it’s yet to confirm if this is the Slate 8 or some other unannounced flagship. Given the context, perhaps this is an enterprise offering designed for corporate customers, or it could just as easily be the fever-dream of a Madison Avenue art director. If it’s real, we’d expect a release around October 26th along with the rest of the Windows 8 cohort.

SOURCE via HP

Microsoft’s slick Surface slates might be the Windows tablet consumers have been waiting for, but business folks? Motion computing hopes to keep their attention, refreshing its enterprise slate with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom N600 processor, a 128GB SSD and Bluetooth 4.0 support. The 10.1-inch slab, dubbed the CL910, retains the 15.5mm frame of its predecessor, as well as the old hardware’s USB port, SD card slot and Gorilla Glass protected 1,366 x 768 panel. $1,260 buys a tablet loaded with Windows 7 Professional, but will be eligible for an upgrade when Redmond’s Metro overhaul hits shelves.

SOURCE via Motion Computing

Former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates knows exactly why the company seemingly punched its partners in the gut with the introduction of the Windows 8-powered Surface tablet. Even more, he thinks Microsoft has done the right thing by going solo, and that Windows 8 is going to kill the traditional PC. Whoa.

Bill Gates made this revelation on Charlie Rose Monday night as he talked about Microsoft’s decision to make its own tablet. As previously reported, Surface will arrive in two flavors: x86-based featuring Windows 8 Pro, and ARM-based using Windows RT. It will feature a unique cover that also serves as a super-thin keyboard, and go head to head with other Windows 8 tablets manufactured by HP, Dell, Asus, Lenovo and others.

“I actually believe you can have the best of both worlds,” he said. “You can have a rich eco-system of manufacturers and you can have a few signature devices that show off, wow, what’s the difference between a tablet and a PC?”

To Microsoft’s defense, Google is taking the same route with its Nexus 7 tablet and the other “Google Experience” tablets planned in the near future. These will be “signature” devices offering the best of what Google has to offer while manufactured by one of its top-tier manufacturers. However these devices will be competing not only with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad, but all the other Android tablets on the market.

As for Bill Gates’ vision of the future, he openly admitted that Windows 8 tablets will replace the traditional PCs. Is he right? After all, All-In-One PCs seem to do well in the general consumer market. They’re not as thin as tablets, but they’re more compact than the traditional desktop and typically sport touchscreens. Maybe it will be this specific sector that tablets while annihilate first.

“You can get everything you like about a tablet, everything you like about a PC, all in one device. That should change the way people look at things,” he said.