[It seems nobody understand what's RT for..It's cheaper and is a mobile OS like the iOS. Battery life is longer as well. It can multitask like a normal computer, you can plug in a printer, you can plug in anything USB related, you can use office for some serious work, you can view flash websites on a normal IE10. you can plug in your 2TB ext hard disk and go in file explorer and click the movie you want to see....etc you want me to go on? ]
The problem of a RT platform is that Windows 8 tablet based on Intel Atom platform already does everything RT can do, including long battery life and light weight. In fact, currently there are Atom based W8 tablet in the market which is lighter and has longer battery life than iPad2. Needless to say, it is also able to run all existing Windows applications. Pricewise, it is only like slightly more expensive than Surface RT+Touch cover, a $100 increase in price in many cases. An example is Acer W510. If Atom can already do this, think about what the next generation of low power CPU from Intel and AMD can do? In Windows world, ARM based SoC is redundant as soon as Intel and AMD can produce CPUs that can compete with it.
RT platform would have made more sense if they are priced much lower. If Surface RT has been launched with the selling price of the rumored $200, the sales figure would have turned out very differently.