Only days after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer carried a Samsung Windows RT ATIV Tab on stage to join QUALCOMM in announcing their partnership at CES 2013, Samsung has stopped releasing a Windows RT tablet in the U.S., citing confusion between Windows 8 and Windows RT as the reason.

Windows RT can be a bit confusing to customers and that's the reason Samsung has decided not to move forward with the release of the ATIV Tab in the U.S. Windows RT looks like Windows 8, acts like Windows 8 (in some areas), but is very much a different operating system. Windows RT is a version of Windows Microsoft created to be used on tablets running ARM processors. It's the OS found on their Surface tablet and is more comparable to its Windows Phone OS than the desktop version of Windows 8. It can only run applications that are purchased in the Windows Store and cannot run any Windows desktop applications. Having to explain the differences to customers was just too much for Samsung to bear and they have decided not to move forward with the U.S. launch of its ATIV Tab.

"There wasn't really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait," Michael Abary, Samsung's Senior Vice President recently told CNET.