New figures for Windows tablet sales in Japan show that customers there are much keener on Windows slabs than the rest of the world. Japan-based market research agency BCN observed that, in February, 15.7 per cent of tablets sold came with Windows 8.X installed. This compares very favourably with the worldwide tablet market percentage of a mere 2 per cent, reports DigiTimes.
What is happening to propel this significantly greater share of Windows tablets off retailer shelves? DigiTimes believes it is a combination of the popularity of Microsoft's own Surface tablets over there and a surge of 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets enjoying popularity. It says that "vendors have been aggressively releasing Windows 8.1-based 8-inch models since October 2013," and that has started to make an impact on the Japanese market. Also Microsoft's second generation Surfaces have in some configurations had stock run dry in Japan.
It seems like the Japanese market is particularly fond of these full Windows 8.X machines in handy portable slate form. If you look at the Japanese market for electronics, such as smart and feature phones, they really do like gadgets to be packed full of features so the dual Modern/Desktop UI in Windows 8 tabs and all the functionality that provides appears to be tellingly popular.
This news coincides with Intel's latest set of financial results, which we wrote about on HEXUS earlier today. We heard that Intel was expecting much of its tablet chip sales in the coming year to come from Android tablets, even though it is pitted against Qualcomm, MediaTek and others in that area. CNet says that Intel doesn't have much hope for Windows tablets but perhaps with the recent Microsoft OS price cuts (or even free for some devices) it might see a change like that observed in Japan by BCN analysts, in other world regions.
