Lenovo demos ThinkPad tablet running Windows 8, we go hands-on
Yes, another Windows 8 tablet. After getting hands-on with some new devices from Acer, ASUS and Samsung, you might already having trouble telling one device from the other. You might even say the same about Lenovo …
Context & Ripple Effects
The demo makes good on the [[a:1194713|source-sourced claim from March that Lenovo would be first to market with a Windows 8 tablet]] — though 'first' is getting crowded fast, since Engadget's same hands-on session covered new Windows 8 hardware from Acer, ASUS and Samsung, and a Bloomberg-reported rumor had Acer, Toshiba and Asustek planning Windows 8 slates explicitly aimed at the iPad (unconfirmed). It's also not Lenovo's first tablet swing: the company shipped an Android ThinkPad Tablet with optional stylus in 2011 and experimented earlier with a two-chip laptop-tablet hybrid back in 2010.
What distinguishes this round is that everyone is showing Windows 8 hardware before the OS has even shipped, which turns differentiation into the whole game — ASUS answered within a day with the TAICHI dual-screen convertible and the Transformer AiO that dual-boots Android and Windows 8.
First-order effects
- Enterprise buyers who know the ThinkPad brand get a recognizable slate option to evaluate once Windows 8 launches, rather than being pushed toward consumer-oriented tablets.
- Lenovo's first-to-market boast now has to survive contact with Acer, ASUS and Samsung demoing comparable devices in the same week, making launch timing and price the visible differentiators.
Second-order effects
- With every major OEM's Windows 8 slate looking interchangeable — the exact problem Engadget flags — vendors are forced into form-factor bets like ASUS's TAICHI dual-display convertible and its Android-Windows dual-booting Transformer AiO.
- Microsoft's OS becomes the common denominator across the PC industry's tablet lineups, concentrating leverage over the entire category in Redmond while OEM margins compress around near-identical hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, PC makers' tablet businesses become structurally tethered to Microsoft's release cadence — the way their notebook businesses already are — leaving brand (ThinkPad's enterprise pull) and industrial design as the only defensible ground.
- Whether any of this dents the iPad is the open question the rumored Acer-Toshiba-Asustek plans gesture at; the corpus shows ambition aimed at Apple's dominance but no evidence yet that Windows 8 hardware changes buyer behavior.
The trend: PC OEMs are converging on Windows 8 as their vehicle back into tablets after the Android experiment, competing instead through enterprise brands and hybrid form factors.