14 DAY TRIAL // Dell has just announced that it’s retiring the Venue series of Android tablets in order to focus on products that make more sense these days - Windows 10 hybrids.
Specifically, Dell says that the Android tablet market is oversaturated at the moment, and it makes little sense for someone to invest in such devices. As a result, the company is planning to focus fully on Windows 10 2-in-1 models that are expected to experience bigger success, especially because they tackle two different worlds, namely PCs and tablets.
A 2-in-1 model, Dell says, offers both the advantages of a laptop, because it runs the full version of Windows 10, and the mobility of a tablet, and this is why they are likely to grow significantly in the coming months and years.
Microsoft invented the Windows 2-in-1 in 2012
Microsoft has pretty much invented this new product category with the original Surface launched in October 2012, when the company introduced a tablet that could double as a laptop thanks to a detachable keyboard. Now Dell seems to truly believe that this idea is fantastic, so it wants to go in the same direction in the coming years.
“The slate tablet market is oversaturated and is experiencing declining demand from end users. Additionally, 2-in-1s with larger screens in the 10 to 13-inch range are offering a laptop-first experience with the convenience of a tablet when needed. This is where our customers are asking us to invest and innovate,” Kirk Schell, VP of commercial client solutions at Dell, explained.
Dell will thus retire the Venue lineup of tablets, and no other OS updates will be provided, but the company will continue to honor warranties and service contracts. The Wyse Cloud Connection solution will be discontinued as well, the company says.
Certainly, this can only be good news for Microsoft, not necessarily because Dell goes all-in on Windows 10, but because it delivers one essential message: Android is no more an option, and Windows 10 devices are the future.