How The Windows RT Nook Will Happen And Its Price

The rumor out of China this morning is that at Computex 2013 Asus will introduce a stylus-enabled seven-inch Windows 8 tablet for US$300. Right now, we don’t know if that’s full Windows 8 or just Windows RT. Since only the Surface Pro has a stylus, it’s likely full Windows 8. So US$300 would be quite a stunning price.

That got me to thinking what the price of a Windows RT-based Nook tablet must be to succeed.

And I think it’ll have to be US$149.99 to succeed.

Could that price point be met?

The Wrong Number

Slaves to the algorithm

One day in the near future — perhaps this has already happened — an innocent crime novelist researching bloody techniques for his latest fictional serial killer will find armed men banging on his door in the middle of the night, because he left a data trail that caused lights to flash red in some preventive-policing algorithm. Perhaps a few distressed writers is a price we are willing to pay to prevent more murders. But predictive crime prevention is an area that leads rapidly to a dystopian sci-fi vision like that of the film Minority Report (2002).

What happens then?

Research licenses?

And how do you get the license?

Who gets to decide if you can earn your living as a writer?