The death knell for Windows RT is sounding, and by no less a personage than the former head of the Windows division, Julie Larson-Green. She is currently the head of the the division that makes the only device that runs Windows RT:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/26/microsoft-kill-windows-rt-larson-green

Larson-Green, who is executive vice-president of Devices and Studios at Microsoft, said that the aim of Windows RT was "our first go at creating that more closed, turnkey experience [that Apple has on the iPad]…" but that Microsoft now has three mobile operating systems: "We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three."

I'm guessing that this comes before Microsoft has to announce yet another write-down of the Surface RT second–edition that they simply call, Surface 2. The problem with Windows RT has less to do with RT, and more to do with Windows. It is symptomatic of Microsoft's inability to conceive of a product without Windows. Even the new Xbox has a Windows layer. Microsoft can't get rid of Steve Balmer soon enough. Microsoft could not accept that a tablet was something fundamentally different from a traditional PC. Windows RT was their compromise for shoehorning Windows onto a tablet, rather than starting from scratch and making a native, tablet OS. 

Remember all those Surface ads that made fun of the iPad for perceived shortcomings? Even Microsoft didn't believe that stuff. The Surface RT wasn't even supposed to be designed for productivity, yet they sold it with a copy of Microsoft Office. What's going to happen is that Microsoft is going to quietly kill off this turkey of a product. What they should be doing is apologizing for deceiving people into believing that the RT garbage would ever be competitive. 

Don't think I am being harsh. I'm not. When this news catches the attention of the big, media outlets next week, there will be unpleasant consequences for Microsoft, with tough questions to answer. 

David Johnson