Qualcomm confirms release date of first PCs

Apr 21, 2017 07:35 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft and Qualcomm announced Windows 10 on ARM in late 2016, with the two companies promising new devices developed with this emulation technology to see daylight this year.

And now Qualcomm’s CEO Steve Mollenkopf has revealed that the first PCs running Windows 10 on ARM chips are projected to launch in the fourth quarter.

Most likely, the fourth quarter target date means that these devices should see daylight in October or November, as both Microsoft and Qualcomm probably want to benefit from the growing sales during the holiday season and bringing PCs to the market just before the shopping frenzy makes sense.

Phones running Windows 10 on ARM?

These PCs powered by Windows 10 on ARM will feature the Snapdragon 835 chip, which is already being used on high-end smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S8.

“We have an opportunity to disrupt the existing suppliers of the PC and the datacenter. Our Snapdragon 835 is expanding into Mobile PC designs running Windows 10, which are scheduled to launch in the fourth calendar quarter this year. In the data center, we announced the collaboration with Microsoft and demonstrated Windows Server Running on our 10 nanometer Qualcomm Centriq processors, the first 10 nanometer server processors in the industry,” Mollenkopf said.

The arrival of new PCs running on ARM chips gives hope that Microsoft could also restart work on devices the size of smartphones that could feature the full version of Windows 10.

The eagerly-anticipated Surface Phone, which we don’t even know exists but which is expected in late 2017 or early 2018, could embrace Windows 10 on ARM, though there’s still no confirmation at this point that such a project is at least planned.

Windows 10 on ARM won’t lead to an avalanche of new products, as OEMs are likely to embrace the new technology slowly at first, especially because it’s difficult to forecast how sales will evolve after the first devices hit the market.