Look out for a new range of lower-cost netbooks this year using Arm-based processors rather than Intel’s Atom chip…but don’t expect to see any of them running Windows.
Linux, yes, Google’s Android operating system, quite possibly, but Microsoft is not yet supporting the new devices, which is something of an irritation to Warren East, Arm chief executive.
“Microsoft will support them when it’s ready to. Personally, I think they should be supporting Arm now,” he told me.
“I think it’s a dangerous missed opportunity for them, from their point of view.”
Mr East sees no technical obstacles to Windows supporting Arm:
“They’ve been working with Arm for the last 12 years or so on Windows Mobile, there’s lots of Arm-based code at Microsoft. It’s commercial reasons.”
He did not care to speculate on what those commercial reasons were, but the Arm netbooks are likely to be the cheapest available, meaning Microsoft might have to cut its licensing fees for Windows to be included.
And its longtime “Wintel” ally, Intel, might not be best pleased if Microsoft supports Arm as well as Atom in this frontline battle between the two processors.
“Arm definitely provides a route if you want to get to a $250 cost point rather than a $500 price point. Arm plus Linux is $60 off the bill of materials compared to Atom plus Windows,” said Mr East, with Intel and Microsoft’s products costing around $30 more each.
Chipmakers Qualcomm and Freescale have said they will contribute to netbooks with chips based on Arm designs. Mr East expects 10 or more models to appear on retail shelves this year.
Despite the skyrocketing sales of netbooks, figures of around 10m sold in 2008 pale next to sales of around 1.2bn mobile phones, where Arm’s designs are universally included and provide the bulk of its earnings.
That’s why Mr East sees Microsoft’s blanking of Arm’s move into netbooks as little more than a minor botheration:
“We almost don’t care, because there are users out there who don’t want to use Microsoft, they’re quite happy with Google and if some of the manufacturers are successful at selling these netbooks with Linux, perhaps with Google Android, then users who would otherwise have resorted to the safety of Microsoft will say: ‘Actually, this works perfectly well, thank you very much, I don’t need Microsoft.’”
