this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Lol. Microsoft will never beat apple when in comes to how well their system runs on ARM hardware. simply because Apple has 3 chips to support that they know perfectly. Microsoft Windows would need to support whatever ARM chip comes out which will be an overgrowing number. This fact alone makes it extremely hard.
On the other hand Microsoft has already won in some way. Even with Apple silicon, Apple computers are still way less used then Windows PCs. So it's not like windows is the underdog here. They are only fighting to stay in their monopoly.
The primary reason for people to use windows is still gaming and specialized software like CAD. Windows on ARM will not be used by anyone unless AAA games or AutoCAD software is build for ARM and Nvidia and AMD GPUs can be easily coupled with it.
I don't see this coming at all. The only area where cheap, low power ARM PCs with windows would make sense, Linux or ChromeOS would be the way better and cheaper option. I don't see any market for high performy ARM PCs with windows on them until demanding software and hardware supports it.
I dunno - cellular networking, touch screen, detachable keyboard... Apple is pretty easy to beat if you ask me. All Microsoft needs is an ARM chip that is "fast enough" and also has competitive battery life. Something Intel can't deliver on.
That's not how the transition went on a Mac. Software compiled for Intel is generally faster on ARM than it ever was on Intel Macs... not because the CPU is faster (it's not), but rather Apple Silicon Macs have faster SSDs, faster RAM, more L2/L3 cache, etc. Those aren't proprietary secrets, they're just expensive. Anyone can do the same. Intel has caught up but only on their expensive desktop processors. If Qualcomm can do it on with a reasonably priced laptop chipset, that could be pretty special.
Games aren't limited by compute performance, they're mostly limited by how fast textures can be read. And it's the same with AutoCAD.
Also you missed a massive use case - browsing the web. Chrome/etc is already optimised for ARM, since nobody uses x86 on a smartphone.
Or they can do with producing, say, HaloPhones and HaloPads and only supporting what's used in them.
I suspect this is like weapons trade or big commercial integrations. There will be ARM versions of those when there will be a strategy of MS and its partners profiting from it. Same with hardware.
It's not that something happening naturally didn't happen, it's that there's no such strategy to turn in that direction. This market is so oligopolized that it even looks this way.