The main allure is a low price-point of AU$199, which is about AU$100 less than a traditional Windows 8 tablet. The HP Stream 8 (5801 aka Wi-Fi edition) seems to be one of these devices, on which Microsoft and Intel have collectively placed their future hopes on, to try and claw back at the Google-territory.

Microsoft chips in by making Windows 8.1 with Bing, provided to OEM for “free” for small screen devices to try and bolster the low-end of the market. The tablet market itself, as I had predicted, is beginning to stagnate and a new philosophy is needed to revive it. It did show that x86 was capable of being miserly with power, and the ARM based Microsoft Surface RT to be a “needless” device.įast forward to mid-2014, and it’s apparent the threat from low-cost Chromebooks are also edging out the Microsoft Windows solutions. The first generation efforts, say the Acer Iconia W3, proved to be promising but missed the mark in some respects. This has enabled both Windows and Android based Intel tablets, for Intel to try and attack the market from both sides.

Not content with being relegated to the scrap-heap, Intel has done much work in revamping their x86 CPUs into something much more power efficient, producing a new line of Atom Z-series CPUs which more closely resemble the low-power SoC designs of ARM CPUs by incorporating peripherals and using package-on-package technology. In a world where ARM CPUs and Android OS have come to be dominating factors in the tablet and mobile marketspace, and Chromebooks have become a big force in the educational market (at least in the US), it seems that Microsoft and Intel stand to miss out entirely on the “next generation” of computer users.

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