Microsoft Corp. must be worried about all the analyst chatter regarding its possible obsolescence in a handheld-centric world. The company expanded its pact with ARM Holdings in mid-July, moving from a Windows Embedded port with roots dating back to 1997, to a broad-based R&D effort involving the ARM instruction set and architecture, generating speculation that it would soon offer versions of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 for ARM binaries.
And where is the surprise there? The very phrase “Wintel” assumes a commonality of purpose between Intel and Microsoft that has been missing for years. While Intel’s Atom has fun with MeeGo and other environments, it’s only right and proper that Microsoft gives a variety of microprocessors a test drive.
The more interesting questions in this licensing involve which Google platforms will prove toughest contenders, and whether any other corporate OS’s, Linux-derived or otherwise, will prove important. Based on Google’s plans of a year ago, Chrome (as OS, not browser) would have been commonplace as a handheld client platform by now, while Android would have been relegated to the smartphone market as strictly defined at that time. Since the iPad launch, of course, Android 2.2 has come into its own as a challenger to Apple’s iOS, while little has been heard from Chrome.
In fact, the success of Android 2.2 may make Mary Jo Foley’s speculation at ZDNet of a Windows Phone 7 port to ARM appear more viable than theories of a Windows NT kernel moving to ARM. Keep in mind, this may represent little more than a Plan B for Microsoft, as Redmond may continue to see its handheld future pegged first and foremost to Atom. Nevertheless, one can never assume winners and losers too early in the handheld space.
Loring
