Windows RT Expected to be Quietly Retired Following Cancellation of Nokia Lumia 2520 Production

Windows RT, the Windows 8 version for mobile devices using the 32-bit ARM architecture that was launched in October 2012, may just yet be quietly phased out after it was learned that Microsoft will no longer be building the Lumia 2520, the last remaining ARM-tablet that runs on the RT operating system, according to Dutch tech news site PCM. The company itself last week already confirmed that it has halted the production of its own Surface 2 ARM-tablets.

On Tuesday's Microsoft presentation, CEO Satya Nadella said that they will be combining all of the various Windows iterations into one unified version with Windows 10, but a separate update with only "some" of the changes of Windows 10 is planned for Windows 10. In a statement to CNET, the company said: "We are working on an update for [the Windows RT version of] Surface, which will have some of the functionality of Windows 10. More information to come."

Based on these developments, PC World opines: "At this point, Windows RT is dead in all but name. But Microsoft is reluctant to discard those customers who bought into the Surface and Surface 2 vision, and purchased one of the early tablets. Still, discontinuing the Surface 2 tablet from a manufacturing perspective sends the message that the basic Surface line is dead, without kicking those early customers to the curb." There are customers who have already purchased tablets running on RT so the company still has to keep it alive, even if only for a little bit longer.

Windows RT faced intense criticism from users across the world, with David Goldman at CNN Money even calling it "one of the stupidest products" that Microsoft ever created. As gathered from the report, "Microsoft took a $900 million write down last year because of awful Surface RT sales." According to the writer, "Windows RT has two fatal flaws: it's missing crucial apps, and it's poorly designed." While it did come with a desktop, it lacked support for x86 and x64 applications. Also, it can only run apps built for the Windows Store, meaning it won't work with Firefox, iTunes or any other non-Microsoft application.