The New Pact with ARM Will Open Up New Markets for Microsoft

From X-bit Labs: Although Microsoft Corp. has been collaborating with ARM for about thirteen years now, the Friday's announcement that the software giant had licensed ARM architecture was a surprise. The new pact will now open loads of new doors for Microsoft, but it will also likely redefine the whole industry as Microsoft is on offense for smart consumer electronics, slate-type personal computers and other emerging product categories. We decided to discuss the ramifications of the new pact with two leading industry analysts.

The most intriguing thing about the announcement is whether Microsoft will actually enable support of ARM processors with its next-generation Windows 8 system, which is expected to be very flexible in terms of configuration when it comes to different PC form-factors. But there are different opinions here.

"The rumor has been circulating for a year that other ARM licensees have ported Windows to ARM," said Jon Peddie, the head of Jon Peddie Research market tracking agency.

"I would be very surprised if Microsoft moved Windows 7 or 8 onto ARM. Even if they did, there would not be any applications to run on it, since the apps all run only on x86 CPUs. I believe Microsoft will focus on ARM for Windows Phone and maybe tablets, since the full x86/Win 7 environment is a little too bulky for these low-powered devices," said Nathan Brookwood, the principal analyst at Insight 64.

The clash between ARM and x86 is heating up, even though it is not seen widely at the moment. In fact, it is more than a battle between architectures of central processing units (CPUs), it is a fight for consumers' minds, Microsoft needs that badly now that Apple and Google are escalating in smartphones.

Possibly, it is logical for Microsoft to enable ARM compatibility with Windows 8 and create some kind of emulator (which is also why it needs to license ARM architecture) to run previous-generation software.

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