Windows 8 on ARM Devices May Not Hit Market Until 2013 At Earliest

By Cheryl Lindo Jones
30 Nov, 2011 9:00 am

The effort to produce ARM-based devices running Windows 8 is expected to lag behind the primary efforts of developing Windows 8 for x86 devices. As such, Windows on ARM devices may come onto the scene around mid-2013 at the earliest.

There’s pushback from some developers and manufacturers regarding running Windows 8 on ARM devices, primarily because all software originally written for x86 devices will have to be rewritten to run on the ARM platform. With all the pushback, Digitimes’ sources claim that Windows on ARM devices may not really become broadly adopted in the marketplace until 2015, at which point they would provide a challenge to Intel and AMD devices running Windows 8.

Of course, Intel has their Ivy Bridge platform coming up soon for early next year, with the Haswell platform to follow in 2013, so they won’t be taking the Windows on ARM progress laying down. Both platforms are intended to have low-power needs, but maintain high performance for highly mobile devices like Ultrabooks and tablets.

It’s hard to know whether or not all of this information will bear out. Earlier we reported that ASUS’s business strategy for their EeePad line seemed to indicate that they are not only a leading partner in the Windows on ARM alliance, but also that they could actually plan to release two “hero tablets” running Windows 8 on ARM in Q3 of 2012. So we’ll have to see how this really plays out as we get closer to the supposed release dates.

Via Slashgear