Last year Microsoft launched Windows 8.1 with Bing as a free or cheap option for makers of low-cost tablets. It was designed as a way to make Windows more price competitive with Google Android, and it seems to have worked: not only have a number of Western companies shipped low-cost Windows tablets, but there are a lot more Windows tablets coming out of China these days than there were a year or two ago.
One of the Chinese companies producing those devices is Teclast… and the company tells me it plans to expand beyond China soon with new versions of its tablets designed to be sold in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The company’s international tablets will be available with English or Spanish as the default language, and they’ll come pre-loaded with apps chosen for those markets.
Teclast also claims some of these tablets will be among the first devices to ship with Windows 10 with Bing. Yep. Microsoft’s free/cheap version of Windows is still around.
While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced plans for Windows 10 with Bing, Teclast sent me a press release indicating that dual-boot version of the Teclast X98 Air 3G will run Android 5.0 and Windows 10 with Bing software.
Want more evidence that the Windows with Bing program is still alive and kicking?
If you look closely at the leaked Intel Compute Stick roadmap we obtained a few months ago, it also mentions Windows 10 with Bing software that will be used on upcoming versions of Intel’s tiny PC-on-a-stick.
As for Teclast, I should point out that only the 64GB version of the company’x X98 Air 3G 64GB tablet will run Windows 10 with Bing. Teclast also has a 32GB model that runs Android only.
The tablet features an Intel Atom Z3736F Bay Trail processor, a 9.7 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and support for 3G WCDMA 2100/900 networks or 2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands.
Note that this is not the same tablet as the recently-announced Teclast X98 Pro, which features a Cherry Trail processor and Windows 10 software.
I’m confused… I’ve just updated a mini PC with Windows 8.1 with Bing (Activated) to Windows 10, and it’s still activated.
Who would have thought Bing would be something you’d want to advertise
This makes no sense. Obviously MS want to advertise it. And the manufacturers include this in return for cheap/zero licence fee. That’s how marketing works. Obviously consumers might not be interested, but that goes for marketing in general.
It’s called a joke.
Thats good news that they are going to do international versions preloaded with the English language pack.
Currently, Teclast delivers Windows 8.1 Pro or 8.1 Bing, depending on which day of the week they are manufactured. Sometimes they come not activated, and with no product key, and you have to contact your retailer to get a key. They are very inconsistent.
But one thing that is consistent, is that they are all delivered with ONLY the chinese language pack, and you have to get the english language pack on your own.
I read somewhere that with Windows 10, you will not be able to substitute language packs on Chinese-only copies of Windows 10.
Microsoft can’t let ChromeOS/Android/iOS continue to eat its market share into extinction.
Continue? I don’t think windows is anywhere near extinction. And where is chromeos on market share?
Right, there’s still a lot of businesses still using Windows XP/7. But the fact is everyday consumers are looking more towards the alternate OS’s because of the huge price cut of Android/Chrome devices, and the sour taste that W8 left. Year over year, windows market share is on a decline while the competitors are gaining. This isn’t news, go google it.