If there is one major hardware manufacturer that is still missing from the tablet party, it is Advanced Micro Devices. The CPU maker admittedly is battling its own demons, but it had to make a decision.
And the decision has been made.
The company recently revealed that it has scrapped its plans to support Google’s Android platform for now, and will be sailing full steam ahead on the Windows 8 ship with its Fusion accelerated processing units (APU).
AMD believes that Windows 8 is off to an unhurried start, but things should improve with time.
A few year back AMD was set u p a team of several software specialists to explore Google’s Android operating system. At that time, that signaled the company’s interest in supporting the platform. Not much came out of it, though.
Besides, that was before the release of Windows 8. But now the processor maker has set its sight on Windows 8 tablets.
The senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD (seriously, who thinks up these titles?), Lisa Su in an interview with IDG News Service said:
“AMD is looking to make a mark in tablets priced starting at around $499 or $599. We are betting heavily on Windows 8.”
So then, there you have it. The company’s tablet strategy for both consumer and business is focused entirely on Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform. And when I say platform, I obviously mean it as a whole, the entire ecosystem — hardware, software, processor, graphics, apps, devices, everything.
AMD’s will be taking ARM and its inexpensive (but powerful) solutions head-on in this market.
This mid-range market ($499 to $599) strategy makes total sense for AMD, as Apple seems to have captured the premium-priced segment and inexpensive Android tablets like Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD settled in the low-priced $199 segment.
Essentially, as far as tablets go, Windows 8 is set to sit smack in between iOS and Android.
AMD displayed a new Windows 8 tablet at the recent CES 2013, powered by the company’s first chip specifically designed for tablets. Codenamed, Temash, this new platform can house up to four x86 cores with DirectX 11.1 graphics processing in a highly power efficient package.
