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Over at Microsoft Corp.’s MIX Developer Conference in sunny Las Vegas, Microsoft has demoed a new preview build of Internet Explorer 10 (which you too can take for a spin, if you feel so inclined), and also dropped a little premature Easter egg – the build of IE10, and the underlying Windows OS, were both running on a 1 GHz ARM chip. Sneaky.
Back at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft announced that they would be working hard to introduce support for the increasingly popular ARM architecture, which provides the foundation for the Qualcomm Inc. Snapdragons, Apple Inc. A5s and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Hummingbirds of this world. Essentially if you own a mobile device, it’s almost certainly powered by an ARM-based chip.
Windows’ reliance on x86 architecture – the kind peddled by Intel Corp. – has meant it has not adapted well to a tablet form factor, where comparatively high power draws and inefficient cooling have prevented many Intel-based tablets coming to market. And the few that did reach the market then had to contend with the fairly touch-unfriendly Windows 7 UI.
Microsoft has long insisted that Windows is their tablet OS. Although many have suggested it, the company has so far resisted putting Windows Phone 7 onto a larger-screen device, and a recent slew of leaked Windows 8 screenshots seem to make it clear why. Microsoft appears to be slowly putting the pieces in place for an upcoming tablet reboot, featuring a touch-friendly Windows 8 UI running on ARM architecture.
There are still many unknowns at this point – how well will the resource-heavy Windows perform on low-powered ARM silicon compared to their usual, meatier Intel underpinnings? Can a Windows-powered tablet reach a competitive price-point given Microsoft’s love of license fees when Android is given away for free (Windows Touch Edition anyone?)? And – most crucially – is there really room for another player, even one as big as Microsoft, in the already-crowded tablet market?
Image via Engadget
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It’s “peddled”
Grammar Nazi out
Considering that Microsoft pioneered the Tablet PC, and was one of the first companies to really push Tablet Computing in general, I would imagine that they will remain a key player for some time to come. Anyone who thinks otherwise must not have been paying attention to the Tablet market in the late 90s, when it actually came into existence.
If you think that the iPad was the first tablet, you have a lot to learn.
There are still many unknowns at this point –
“how well will the resource-heavy Windows perform on low-powered ARM silicon compared to their usual, meatier Intel underpinnings?”
I’m guessing poorly. People complained (and continue to) about Atoms being underpowered or “for basic tasks”. Well, I have Ubuntu on a 1.3ghz Atom Mini, and I can do whatever I want with it. And it’s not sluggish. ARM is good per mhz but won’t miraculously speed up slow code.
” Can a Windows-powered tablet reach a competitive price-point given Microsoft’s love of license fees when Android is given away for free (Windows Touch Edition anyone?)? ”
Doubt it. Even WinCE is a hard sell these days.
“And – most crucially – is there really room for another player, even one as big as Microsoft, in the already-crowded tablet market?”
Sure there could be. But, it’ll have to be competitive. The big weakness in my view is APPS — an ARM version of Windows will either need native ARM apps (so no apps) or need an x86 emulator (slooooow).
Besides Android and so on, I’ve run Linux (Ubuntu or gentoo) on PowerPC, HP PA-RISC, DEC Alpha, and it was just like running on an x86 desktop, I had a full complement of native applications installed, with loads more in the package manager to add later. No reason to think ARM will be any different (plus, Canonical’ve been working on a UI for touch screens and such, as I’m sure Microsoft has.) The idea of having a full complement of apps is appealing to me.
“If you think that the iPad was the first tablet, you have a lot to learn.”
about how microsoft did it wrong for 10 years, no one bought into it, and the only inroads they had (in industry) have already been destroyed by the ipad.
they do some amazing amazing things. Tablets, not one of them.
Really why are you guys jumping over this one.
History everyone MS did release a PPC version yes Windows did run their but no third parties came so it died a slow painful death.
Time to jump up and down is when third parties decide to back it not before.
Thank you Grammar Nazi for keeping me honest!
This is not surprising at all to me as the NT line has always been portable. The NT line has supported MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC, IA-64; not to mention the currently supported Intel x86 and AMD64.
@ john l – “Considering that Microsoft pioneered the Tablet PC, and was one of the first companies to really push Tablet Computing in general, I would imagine that they will remain a key player for some time to come.”
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Microsoft is a key player in the tablet market? Go Corp., Apple’s Newton, etc – there were many before TabletPC. So I’m not sure they pioneered anything. And they certainly aren’t a key player based on marketshare, there is arguably one leader, and a great amount of interest in another platform (Android).
uhm,windows on arm is a good idea bat there are the problems of applications.
linux has a lot of application for every ahrdware (most of them are open source and it’s only needed to compile them..)
for windows i think most of application will be made with .net virtual machine.
Windows on tablets. Touching