Laptop Thoughts: Windows to get an ARM and (maybe) Some Legs

"It looks like Microsoft may finally be taking the tablet market seriously: next month at CES the company will announce a version of Windows for the ARM processors used in most smartphones and tablets, according to a report today from Bloomberg."

It must be difficult for the management at Microsoft to watch the global landscape for technology changing so radically that Windows, while still dominant and in many people's homes, losing marketshare in almost every way possible. Windows Phone 7 is off to a good start, but that is only after many, many years of Windows Mobile losing ground to the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices. The Xbox can also be considered a success though it still battles out against Sony and Nintendo for sales. Everywhere you look, Microsoft is being assaulted by new and different devices and form factors.

One major problem for the Windows platform in recent years has been only being able to run on x86 based CPUs. While fast and powerful, x86 CPUs are hardly frugal electronics. This is why phones and tablets have largely avoided them in favor of the much more battery conscious ARM CPUs. If Windows has been ported to ARM, it is big news indeed and opens up whole new possibilities for Microsoft. Of course, the CPU is only part of the equation, and there needs to be an interface that properly suits the different form factors. Will that come as part of the "revised" Windows package? I guess we will find out at CES.