It looks like the iPad will get a little more running room as the tablet version of Windows 8 gets pushed back.
It’s long been a question of when exactly Microsoft will ship Windows 8 for PCs and tablets. Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows group, is downright Jobs-ian when it comes to keeping secrets.Windows 8 for PCs will hit in the fourth quarter of this year, which means they have to be done before Q3 ends in order to get OEMs ready to sell it. The report also claims WOA will be formally introduced at the 2013 MWC show with a debut for the tablets set for May or June 2013.
A well-connected blogger from Europe claims he knows when Windows on Arm (WOA) will hit, thanks to a combination of announcements and some digging around at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, and it looks like the iPad will have more free reign to grab share.
Bright Side of News claims that
Microsoft, as you would expect, declined to comment.
BSN’s editor cites conversations at the show and announcements, or lack thereof, from tablet chip makers. Qualcomm was supposed to show off a quad-core Snapdragon processor at MWC, but now that is not expected until next year. Nvidia didn’t talk about its quad-core Tegra 3 at all during its recent earnings call.
This does not surprise me. First, it’s clear that the chip makers are challenged making a quad-core ARM processor that is also battery efficient. I question the need for four cores in a tablet or phone in the first place. Cores are good in a server or performance desktop. But are more actually needed in a phone?
The winners in all of this are Apple, Intel and AMD. Apple wins here just because it furthers its lead in the tablet space, while Intel and AMD now have a chance to grab some tablet share of their own. Intel has the Atom processor for tablets and its Ultrabook processors, while AMD has finally adopted tablet religion and has the Hondo processor ready to go for tablets as well.
The timing could get messy for ARM licensees, as 2013 is when ARM Holdings is expected to ship a 64-bit processor. That means licensees will have to make their migration, which won’t be easy, and then Microsoft has to begin the process of migrating WOA to 64-bit.
For now, I’ve installed the Windows 8 beta and remain unimpressed. The removal of minimize, maximize and close buttons is just silly. Maybe I’m missing something. I do plan to dig further into it over the coming days as my schedule permits.
I’m not sure how some people are able to write reviews less than a day after it was released. It makes me wonder if they even looked.
