According to ARM’s CEO Warren East, “Microsoft may have some solid advantages over Android in the tablet market.” He added, “Tech observers should give Android tablets more time to gain traction in the market. However, he also notes that Microsoft may have a branding edge with Windows 8 tablets.”
ARM processors power the numbers of tablets and smartphones sold globally. And for the first time with Windows 8, a mainstream Windows operating system will run on both ARM and Intel chips. The point that strikes here is that as per East – Microsoft could possibly have “branding advantages” with ARM-based tablets.
“Consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they’re less familiar with an Android environment. Microsoft has an awareness advantage with consumers that the Android folks didn’t have,” he said.
ARM’s Earnings Call:
East believes Android tablet sales will eventually take off. “Actually when Android phones were introduced, there was a lot of hype. And then, actually, they didn’t take off in the sort of way that reflected that hype. Then a few years later–two years later–half a million units a day, 700,000 units a day. [Android phones now are] really…a very successful product,” he said. “I think we should give Android tablets a little bit more time,” he added.
“One of the factors that–one of the hurdles–that they have to overcome is the fact that every day there’s 700,000 Android phones activated around the ARM architecture and the application developers are working on creating applications that run on ARM,” he said.
East continued. “So Intel [is] going to have…to compete with the 20 or so ARM licensees who are very actively supplying apps processors…This is really a question for Intel as to how well they think they’re going to be able to overcome those hurdles.”
East’s comments are note-worthy but still require a lot of things to be add-on. We will get to know what the future holds for both Windows 8 as well as Android Tablet soon.
