14 DAY TRIAL // Some companies are distancing themselves from the Windows RT operating system, but there are a few that are willing to push forward, like Dell, whose vice president recently said that new XPS products were on the way.
One of the corporations that has all but given up on Microsoft's ARM-ready version of Windows 8 is none other than Samsung.
Truth be told, we understand the move. Windows RT sounded like a good deal in the beginning, but then people wisened up to the fact that it couldn't run x86 apps (PC programs).
Oh, the OS has the ability, or should, but the hardware doesn't: the ARM architecture needs apps coded differently.
Dell itself admits that devices running Windows RT are fairly few, and demand for them is quite weak, even now, months after the debut of the software.
Nevertheless, the company Vice President, Neil Hand, as reported by IDG, feels it is not prudent to wash their hands of the whole deal.
While the short term isn't looking very promising, that does not go for the long term.
ARM Holdings has been slowly making inroads into the PC and server markets, and expects time to increase its share there.
Meanwhile, Intel and Microsoft have been pushing their own brands into the mobile industry. It is a sort of contest of mutual customer theft, one might say.
As such, several years from now it very well might not matter if a device is Windows on ARM or Windows on Intel, or Windows on anything else. Apps could very well run interchangeably on Android and Windows by default at that stage.
As such, Dell will continue making XPS tablets and (maybe) laptops following the Windows on ARM formula, like the XPS 10. Sadly, we have no time line specifics, or even vague ETAs for when successors to that device will arrive.