Why Windows RT Tablets are set to fail

Tablets powered by Microsoft's new Windows RT operating system have made an appearance in the listings of online retailers, and based on what I've seen so far, they are destined for failure.
The first Windows RT tablet to appear on the radar is the Asus Vivo Tab RT, turning up in the listings on a number of retailers, including NewEgg and TigerDirect.
What's so wrong with the long-awaited tablets?
Price
The most obvious problem is price. The base tablet starts at a grimace-inducing $599, which is $100 more than you can pick up a base iPad or Android tablet for. While there are some hardware differences between the Asus Vivo Tab RT and its Android cousin, the Asus Transformer Prime, most of that $100 is down to the cost of the Windows license -- in other words, a Windows tax.
The price surprises don't end there. The Asus Vivo Tab RT can be docked into its own part-keyboard part-battery pack. This feature adds another $200 to the price -- if you shop around you can grab it for $150 -- taking the base package to a stratospheric $799.
Rehash of Android hardware
Another problem with the Asus Vivo Tab RT is that it's not strictly speaking new hardware. Instead it's a rehash of the Android-powered Asus Transformer Prime, which retails for $499. The Asus Vivo Tab RT features double the memory -- 2GB instead of 1GB -- but it has the same Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, the same 10.1-inch 1280x800 IPS display, and the same 32GB of storage.
The fact that the Asus Vivo Tab RT and the Asus Transformer Prime look like twins separated at birth, only the Windows RT one has a heftier price tag, is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

Read more: Why Windows RT tablets are set to fail | ZDNet
 
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