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
