ARM Chipmaker Qualcomm Has Windows RT's Back

From DailyTech: Acer President Jim Wong said in a recent discussion that while his company has "ongoing" plans for a future ARM-based Windows tablet, "There's no value doing the current version of RT."

The frank snub of Windows on ARM (officially, Windows RT) might seem overly harsh, were it not for the cold hard sales numbers. According to market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), sales of Windows RT tablets -- including Microsoft's own flagship "Surface RT" product -- tanked to a total of 200,000 in Q1 2013. That's a mere 0.4 percent of the 49.2 million tablets that shipped in Q1.

But Luis Pineda, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM), a top ARM system-on-a-chip (SoC) maker is firing back, saying poor initial sales are not indicative of Windows RT's long term prospects. He comments:

"We're very excited about Microsoft's strategy around Windows RT. We're very optimistic with the future of Win RT and we see continued success.

Windows RT launched on devices from major manufacturers last October and used Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Qualcomm is working with many more OEM's to launch on Win RT in the future and has a long-term investment in it.

We're not discouraged. Whenever you launch a brand new ecosystem like Windows RT it would be nice to have a home run from day one. But there's lots of excitement about what's coming."

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