ARM-CEO: "In 5 years, every 2nd new Windows PC will run on ARM"
ARM CEO Rene Haas wants to declare war on the x86 PC world. ARM's market share among Windows computers is set to rise to 50 percent by 2029.
(Image: c't)
The supremacy of x86 processors in Windows notebooks and desktop PCs will crumble away in the upcoming years. At least that is the dream of Rene Haas –, head of the British CPU architecture company ARM, who is admittedly biased in favor of his company.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Haas said: "I think ARM's market share in Windows could be over 50% in the next five years." Qualcomm boss Cristiano Amon later shared this assessment.
This refers to the share of new desktop PCs and notebooks sold in 2029. It will be much longer before ARM reaches anywhere near this high share of actively used computers. In five years' time, many will only begin to upgrade their current systems.
Windows on ARM is coming of age
Haas emphasizes that Microsoft is currently working meticulously to make Windows on ARM suitable for everyday use. With Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus, the first serious Windows on ARM laptops will be available from this June 2024. Previous ARM processors were too slow to run important apps smoothly – also due to poor Windows support and the necessary x86 emulation.
It is an open secret that Qualcomm has an exclusive agreement with Microsoft for Windows-compatible ARM SoCs until 2025. Until then, Windows-on-ARM devices may only be released with Snapdragon CPUs.
However, Nvidia's boss Jensen Huang has virtually announced that ARM processors with Nvidia technology will be released for notebooks next year. AMD has also reportedly resumed its ARM development.
MediaTek is also waiting in the wings. The Taiwanese company is the market leader in SoCs for smart TVs and streaming devices and is widely used in smartphones, particularly in the cheaper classes. MediaTek has been trying to get into premium devices for years, and also designs high-end processors for them.
In the case of Intel, nothing is known about its ARM processors. The company wants to profit from ARM designers, primarily through its chip contract manufacturing division Intel Foundry – Nvidia could become a customer with its ARM chips.
Videos by heise
A tiny niche so far
So far, almost nobody buys devices with Windows on ARM – consequently, the platform has no significant market share. Even if you include Chromebooks and ChromeOS, ARM's market share is likely to be in the low single digits.
Only Apple has managed to bring ARM to the PC mass market. Market observer Garnter estimates that Apple will have sold almost 22 million MacBooks and Macs with its CPUs by 2024. This would correspond to a nine percent share of all PCs sold.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(mma)
