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Last week the Macalope came to both bury Microsoft Stores and to praise the company for doing so. This week we see that Microsoft faces another problem but it’s not from chasing Apple.
Jean-Louis Gassée lays it out.
“Apple Silicon: The Passing of Wintel.”
We’re about to enter an exciting, messy transition. Not only will Apple Silicon make better Macs, it will force Microsoft to polish its Windows on ARM act, both hardware and software.
How is Microsoft going to keep them down on the Windows farm when the kids all see the speed and battery life they’d be getting from ARM-based Macs?
The Macalope isn’t going to link to it but he’s seen at least one pundit claim Apple is making a mistake in moving from Intel to is own processors. If you think this is a mistake, well, you’re bad at analysis and you should isolate yourself from society. Since we’re all currently isolating from society, you should double isolate yourself by retreating to a closet or other enclosed space where the spray of your idea droplets cannot find their way out and infect impressionable minds, like those of children, the elderly or world leaders.
Gassée discusses what Apple’s processor switch means for Microsoft. People, or people-like collections of viscous carbon-based matter roughly shaped like people, will argue that Microsoft did it first! And, it’s true, they made the ARM-based Surface RT which they canceled and the Surface Pro X which hasn’t been canceled, it’s just more that it hasn’t arrived yet. Even though it’s already shipped.
So, while it was first, it also has half-assed it. Twice. Its current half-assing has several problems. First of all, its own apps don’t even run on it natively yet. Second, from the review of the Surface Pro X at The Verge Gassée links to:
At times, performance has been erratic, battery life underwhelming…
Battery life?! Running everything in emulation will probably do that but if you switched to ARM and your battery life is bad, well, then you’re probably switching for your own reasons and not those of your customers.
Third of all, can you believe they went with WoA — Windows on ARM — when WARM was right there? Although, the Macalope supposes that saying your processor is running “WARM” was probably not ideal. Okay, scratch that one.
Of course, Microsoft’s not nearly done trying yet. Half-assing it twice is just getting started for Microsoft. “Half-ass it until ya win it” is the company motto.
It sounds better in Latin.
As Gassée indicates, other Windows OEMS will use ARM chips in their Windows PCs to get better performance with lower power consumption and Microsoft will continue to port things and improve their hardware. Microsoft is working with Qualcomm to design chips, but so far none of the benefits have shown up.
Where does all this leave Intel? On the high end and as dry as a Prohibition martini. It still makes good money selling chips for servers but that’s exactly where the PowerPC was left when Apple moved away from that architecture. On the plus side for Intel, while ARM-based Windows machines will start taking more share, it’s not like the vast installed base of Intel-based Windows hardware and software can disappear overnight. Corporations can’t turn on a dime, or even an apocryphal $1 million bill.
The face on the $1 million bill, by the way, is the American hero known as Gritty.
Once again, its legacy is going to make this hard for Microsoft, but not impossible. Better pick up the pace.
In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.
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