Toshiba cancels Windows RT tablet

Computerworld - Toshiba today confirmed what Microsoft intimated yesterday: It won't be delivering a Windows RT-based tablet anytime soon.

"Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible," the Japanese electronics company said in a statement to Bloomberg earlier today. "For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market. We will continue to look into the possibility of Windows RT products in the future while monitoring market conditions."

Last June, Toshiba showed two Windows RT-based concepts -- a tablet with a docking station and a "clamshell" design that resembled a keyboard-equipped ultralight notebook -- at Computex. The devices were not operational, however.

Based on those concept devices, most had included Toshiba in the slowly-growing list of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that were believed to be preparing Windows RT hardware for launch this year or early next.

Monday, Microsoft trumpeted Windows RT and the OEMs crafting hardware for the Windows 8 spin-off. The list -- Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung -- omitted Toshiba as well as Acer, which said in June that it planned to ship ARM-powered tablets and PCs running Windows NT in the first quarter of 2013.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, noticed the omission of Toshiba. "The assumption is that they're behind on their implementation," Moorhead said in a Monday interview. "Texas Instruments is behind both Qualcomm and Nvidia in their drivers."

Texas Instruments (TI), Qualcomm and Nvidia are the three system-on-a-chip (SoC) designers that Microsoft has said are creating the ARM-licensed processors to power Windows RT devices.

Toshiba is the only previously-announced Windows RT OEM to rely on TI for its processors.

Today, Moorhead was skeptical of Toshiba's claim that the delay was caused by hardware components. "I am not buying the part about the chips not being available," said Moorhead in an email. "It's all about the drivers."

Those drivers, said Moorhead, include ones for the tablet's graphics chipset and its video digital signal processing (DSP) silicon.