Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/10/31/acer_delays_rt/

Acer is the latest maker to delay plans for a Windows RT fondletop

'Market needs to develop' - and Surface didn't help

By Paul Kunert

Posted in Personal Tech, 31st October 2012 12:02 GMT

Acer has postponed the release of its Windows RT tab on the channels say so as it waits to see how market adoption rates develop.

The Taiwanese giant had planned to push out its version around February next year but EMEA president Oliver Ahrens confirmed the date has slipped by a couple of months.

"We talk to channel partners and they list the products, they have certain expectations of sales quantities…The RT market has to evolve and we think Q2 is a good time [to launch]," he said.

The launch of Microsoft's Surface slab, which it will sell directly for the interim at least, has caused consternation among OEMs most notably Acer, and some channel partners.

In fact, Acer global president Jim Wong told Reuters it was "more cautious" about RT because of Microsoft's hardware incursion.

The reportedly high cost of the RT license was also understood to be the sticking point for some PC re-branders.

However Toshiba, which backtracked on its Windows RT roadmap recently, cited key component shortages as the reason and not the concern over conflict with Microsoft.

PC vendors have in large been very slow to announce their RT versions, and HP and Lenovo recently admitted the lack of marketing from the industry will confuse some consumers on what the ARM system stands for.

Ahrens at Acer said it released eleven Intel-based touch Windows 8 platforms to market and this will hog its attention in the short term.

"We cannot cook everything at the same time, we are not magicians," he told The Channel.

According to Digi Times, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell and Asus are pushing out RT models but sources told the paper that shipments would be limited to 50,000 each. ®