Win8 Will Push ARM into 40% of Netbooks By 2015
ARM's CEO thinks that Windows 8 will push ARM-based chips into 40-percent of the market's netbooks by 2015.
There was a time when Intel and AMD were butting heads just about every week, fighting to gain the hearts of general consumers, gamers and enthusiasts alike. Then AMD seemingly took a step back to handle personal business and to let Intel thrive on the market, enough so that the competitor gathered its troops to invade the mobile sector. Now the war seems to be between ARM and Intel as the former invades the space of the latter and vice versa.
Tuesday ARM chief executive officer Tudor Brown said that Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS – which we saw running on ARM-based SoCs back in January – will actually push its technology into 40-percent of the market's netbooks by 2015. He also estimated that ARM will command 85-percent of the tablet market in that same year.
According to Brown, ARM tried to enter the netbook sector once before with the launch of the Smartbook, but demand for the device was weak because consumers expected the same compatibility and performance seen with traditional laptops. He also said that consumers found the Android OS difficult to work with (even though Google's mobile OS wasn't built for the netbook environment).
But with Windows 8, he believes that ARM will finally be able to break into the netbook sector successfully, creating a brand new demand driver. The duo will seemingly take the emphasis off solving heating problems caused by current (Intel) x86 solutions and drive industry innovation, thus resulting in even lighter, cheaper, and longer lasting battery standards.
Later this month, netbooks shipping with Google's Chrome OS will begin to infiltrate the market. This should offer a more natural, native computing experience than those previously shipped with the Android OS. And as Softpedia points out, the biggest lure to netbooks is their overall lightweight appeal – lightweight in OS, price and weight while offering longer battery life.
Naturally Intel and AMD won't just step aside and let ARM walk on in uninvited. Intel has already cranked up its process technology for the Atom processors, and AMD is getting ready to launch its "Desna" Fusion SoC designed specifically for tablets. Both are working like mad scientists in lowering the thermal and power draws to match ARM's current level. ARM, on the other hand, is calling their bluff by cranking up the performance of its tech to meet the x86 giants.
Let the games for your wallet begin.
And this is why I'm excited.
Intel will still be the leader because who wants to buy a netbook that is basically a Motorola Atrix dock (with internal computer)? I can't run any generic PC software on it, so it's a super phone dock - like - device. Stupid and meant for newbies!
Give me a real computer please. One that has over 10,000,000 'apps' for it ??
/rant
If there isn't significant third-party support then Win8ARM will end up running the same cross-platform apps that Linux distros already offer. This will mean that Windows just increases OEM overhead without offering any benefits. You would have to be seriously dedicated to IE and Wordpad to be satisfied with just the standard included apps.
Any bets on all of Office being ported? In spite of the announcement I'm not expecting more than a stripped-down version of Word, Excel, and Outlook.
Windows 8 = thumbs down + horrible + gag
I've got a better idea. Here's how it goes.
1. Get Windows 7
2. Use some resource hacker to change some of the icons if you want to.
3. Change the "Windows 7" text to "Windows 8".
4. Use some optimization tips.
That's what Windows 8 really should be - NOT windows 7 with a stupid useless tablet interface.
ARM in other hand doesn't have 64 bit at all. But this should not be a problem since it is a PowePC chip. Like I wrote.
Just windows and X86 that are holding back real 64bit computing. Almost all programs on OSX is 64 bit native since 4-5 years back. It is just silly that you need to specify when you buy windows if you want a 64bit version or not. If 64bit worked, everyone with at 64bit capable computer would want it.
Gaming = Windows
Work = anyting other than windows
And the chap who thinks that ARM uses loads of energy under load: An ordinary dual core 1ghz ARM uses 2.5 watt under max load. A low voltage Intel uses about 17 watt. The difference is that i ARM you have everything inside the ARM chip. No need for a chipset. The chipset has been for example ATOMs big drawback. It is fine to have an ATOM that draws 4 watt. But you have to pair it with a chipset that draws 40 watt.
Perhaps ARM does have an advantage here then! I am curious though what the ratio is of computing power to electricity consumption of mobile ARM processors vs Intel are.
To my rant earlier, I did it because I think it would help engage conversation regarding A.R.M. vs x86 and software availability and access. I love competition and A.R.M. is welcome to compete with Intel and A.M.D., it'll help keep everyone on their toes!
But there is a big problem if you are used to using specific software on your computer, like circuit simulation software, other engineering stuff, photo editing, programming IDEs, etc.. Will those companies port to A.R.M.? Doubt it.
I am sure that A.R.M. netbooks will work just fine as a secondary computer, but as a primary one, don’t think so.
If your used to using popular linux software, I would suppose that you would be more likely to get your software eventually ported to the A.R.M. architecture, but if your primarily a windows user and software whore (like me), then getting an A.R.M. netbook as your main computer would suck.
Good luck ARM! I am confident that you can make a significant dent to the netbook market, but will never penetrate the laptop/desktop market significantly unless software companies really really invest in software development, and even then people can’t use old software on their new ARM machines… unless someone develops an x86 virtual pc!
Netbooks by definition are secondary computers. I could not use my netbook as my primary computer.
ARM might take a decent bite of the netbook/laptop market, but my guess is that it won't be that much. 10 % maybe.
Coming with Win7 soon - this year from our good friends at MSI - so folks can have their x86 cake, and eat it, too.
Throw in a die-shrink (or two) by AMD prior to 2015, further advances to the SoC integrated FCH, better battery tech, etc., and the RISC-CISC line starts becoming even more nebulous.
If Mr. Brown keeps this up, Jen-Hsun Huang may have some competition in the bizarro-world.
you do realize that apple uses those very same intel x86-64 chips in their gadgets, right? the very same you say are holding back "real 64bit computing"?
If you are a heavy user you just cannot use a tablet that is going to run some of the applications. Most of our large files do not reside in the tablet we read and write those huge databases from another huge PC in the network. The whole house has wireless access. If I need to run a heavy duty application that cannot run in the tablet then I remote to one of the huge PCs and run it there but see the results in the tablet. I cannot do all these things in an ARM tablet.
Intel based tablets are very easy to use and the commands are the same as huge PCs. I am not sure how windows users are going to use ARM Tablets; those users are going to be disappointed.
Grow up. ARM chips are going to be woefully slow running at task other than Farmville and Facebook. Cannot wait for a Atom with SSE and Quicksync.