Infor CEO: Windows mobile not popular enough for us to develop Surface apps
Charles Phillips said that he had met with Microsoft to discuss its new tablet
By Derek du Preez | Computerworld UK | Published: 10:58, 25 October 2012
Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor, the third largest enterprise applications vendor in the market, has confirmed that he has no plans to develop applications for Microsoft’s new Windows 8 Surface tablet.
Phillips said that there hasn’t been enough demand for Windows on mobile for Infor to justify investing in Microsoft’s tablet ecosystem – at the moment.
"We have not developed for the Windows 8 tablet. We have talked about that as a possible direction, but we have made no commitment to do that yet," said Phillips.
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"We looked at it and Microsoft did come to see us. It is certainly an evolutionary platform, but I’m not sure it’s a big enough leap for people to switch from iPads."
Infor currently supports applications for iOS on the iPad.
When asked if Phillips was waiting to see what uptake was like for the Surface tablet in the enterprise, he replied 'Yes'.
He added: "To date, the mobile devices running Windows haven’t been that popular. If that starts to change we will take a look at it."
Microsoft has begun shipping its first Surface tablets ahead of the official launch on Friday. It has set the price of its Windows RT Surface tablet with 32GB of storage at £399.
The Surface tablet with RT is 680g, 9.3mm thick and has a 10.6-inch screen. It will come with 32GB and 64GB storage, and a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, which is based on an ARM processor.
With the 32GB model, Microsoft is also offering an optional Touch Cover accessory, which is a magnetic cover that also functions as a keyboard for £479. The Reuters report revealed the Touch Cover will be priced at £99, while the Type Cover will cost £109. The 64GB version will cost £559 with a Touch Cover.
Other features include front and back cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, a microSDXC card slot, USB 2.0 ports and 2GB of RAM. The tablet will come with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT Preview, which will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. The Office software will later be updated to the final version.
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