HP and Dell forced to give up plans of ARM-based Windows 8 tablets

Teaser

HP and other OEMs might not compete with the Microsoft’s Surface tablets by manufacturing their ARM based tablets, and will probably make only x86 based Windows 8 tablets

Pallab Jyotee Hazarika, Published 07/03/2012

Surface tablet PC which was earlier announced by Microsoft as their home grown ARM based tablet seems to have left no other choice for other OEMs. Now it seems like other OEMs are moving to Plan B, where they will manufacture only the x86 based devices.

Earlier it seemed like, HP and Dell were about to compete in the market with the power efficient ARM based operating system architecture in their tablets. But now, as Microsoft will be making their own ARM-based devices - other OEMs are planning to shift towards the x86 processors which will be able to run Windows 8 on the Ivy Bridge processor. These processors are better in performance than their predecessors and are even more power efficient.

A company source mentioned to eWEEK on 27^th of June that, HP was planning to release an ARM based, Windows RT powered tablet by this fall. But now some latest leak reports suggest that the company has changed its mind. This news was further confirmed by Marlene Somsak, HP Personal System Group spokeswoman, with Bloomberg News, as HP will indeed focus on x86 based Windows 8 tablets, but it is not exactly because of the Surface tablets.

She also added that, the decision that HP has taken was mainly because of the influence inputted by their customers. The robust and established ecosystem of x86 applications provides the best customer experience.

Now what she said is definitely true, and we may even say that HP and Microsoft are good partners in the market for a long time. They might not even want to compete with each other in the market now and upset this old relationship. But still the announcement of the Surface tablet might have played a role in HP making this decision.