In addition to the Microsoft Office coming to iOS, there are other signs that Windows Phone 7 is not going to enjoy a long and thriving life. One of them is Intel’s plan to conquer the ARM processors market. Neither Intel nor Microsoft can longer ignore the flourishing market of ARM-based devices. So Intel is going to make ARM chips and Microsoft will make Windows 8 run on ARM-based systems. When they talk ARM devices, it’s not just tablets and netbooks. They explicitly meant smartphones too!
Let me state this again:
- Intel is going to produce ARM chips that are going to be effective enough for smartphones;
- Microsoft is going to make their next version of Windows run on Intel’s ARM chips;
- This combination is going to power smartphones in the future.
While this is a good thing overall (more hardware and software for smartphones to choose from), it’s a death sentence for WP7. If an ARM version of Windows 8 runs on Intel chip based smartphones, nobody will need the current stack of hardware and software known as Windows Phone 7.
