• TCB13@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Can you buy licenses? Why haven’t all manufacturers making and selling ARM tablets / laptops with Windows ARM then? I believe they’re trying to hold it as a competitive advantage to sell more Surface machines.

    • ripcord@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Can you buy licenses?

      I can’t, but OEMs can.

      Why haven’t all manufacturers making and selling ARM tablets / laptops with Windows ARM then?

      Because no one was buying them.

      Microsoft was pushing to make this happen extra hard with Windows 8 or so. They’ve kept it alive since then. It’s revived a bit once they started seeing ChromeOS devices start taking over the low end of the market.

      But the available ARM processors kinda sucked; the price difference at the low end wasn’t enough for consumers in most cases: low margins are a demotivator for manufacturers; Intel and AMD got better low-power, low-price options; app availability was/is a big problem, etc.

      But you can buy Windows ARM laptops and things from Samsung, Lenovo, a few others right now. The others don’t care, mostly still for the reasons above.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why haven’t all manufacturers making and selling ARM tablets / laptops with Windows ARM then?

      Nobody wants them. If they want a Laptop or desktop they’re going x86 because it’s so much faster running the software that exists. If they want a tablet then they’re buying an iPad. Windows on tablets sucks.