Dell had reservations about Microsoft using Windows branding for its ARM-friendly tablet OS
At last week’s Dell World conference, the Texas-based PC manufacturer announced its decision to abandon the development of Android smartphones and tablets. As a result, Windows 8 tablets are going to be the sole focus of its mobile strategy from now on. This is despite the fact that Dell has always had reservations about a key part of Microsoft’s new horses-for-courses OS strategy: the OS naming scheme.
Dell feels that Windows RT is bit of a misnomer since it does not run legacy Windows programs. According to The Australian Financial Review, Jeffrey Clarke, vice-chairman and president of Dell’s PC business, revealed at last week’s Dell World Conference in Austin that he even asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to consider renaming it in order to avoid confusion.
But, obviously, nothing of that sort ever came to pass. In his reply, Ballmer told Clarke that the “Windows†name was far too important to be dropped. And that was that.
While Dell would probably love nothing more than to turn back the clock and have Microsoft drop “Windows†from the name of its ARM-friendly tablet OS, there is nothing it can do now; moreover, what’s in a name?
This is what Neil Hand, the man in charge of Dell’s tablet business, told The Australian Financial Review in an interview: “Making sure we educate the market place on the differences was going to be a necessary action no matter what. Just calling it something different is not going to solve the problem.â€
Given your druthers and Back to the Future's DeLorean, what name would you pick?
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