Microsoft Exec Sings High Praise for ARM and Windows RT, Downplays Legacy App Support
Surface RT tablet sales haven't exactly been through the roof. Out of the 1.5 million Surface tablet sales to date, a million of them belong to Surface RT, falling well short of Microsoft's expectations, assuming it's true that the Redmond outfit ordered 3 million Surface RT slates. Is Windows RT to blame?
It's a bit too early to tell. The only thing we know for sure is that Microsoft is committed to sticking with the platform. Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware & PC Ecosystem, explained to CNET during an interview why Microsoft is in this for the long haul.
"It was a ton of work for us and we didn't do the work and endure the disruption for any reason other than the fact that there's a strategy there that just gets stronger over time," Angiulo explained.
Angiulo had plenty of great things to say about ARM, noting that it's a "really capable" architecture that's wonderfully suited for mobile broadband (3G/4G) devices because its potential for longer battery life compared to Intel chips. He sees a "bright future" for ARM.
On the topic of not being able to run legacy software on Windows RT, Angiulo downplayed the importance of being able to run older software versus the benefits of modern apps.
"People are talking about legacy desktop software not running, but they don't think about the customer benefit of only running modern apps. The only apps that you install from the Windows store are the kind, that as a customer, you can manage your rights to," Agiulo said.
He gave an example of dropping a PC in a pool. If you're not tied to legacy apps, you can just re-download all your apps when you get a new PC, which represents a "kind of model people are used to with a phone or tablet today."
It's a bit too early to tell. The only thing we know for sure is that Microsoft is committed to sticking with the platform. Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware & PC Ecosystem, explained to CNET during an interview why Microsoft is in this for the long haul.
"It was a ton of work for us and we didn't do the work and endure the disruption for any reason other than the fact that there's a strategy there that just gets stronger over time," Angiulo explained.
Angiulo had plenty of great things to say about ARM, noting that it's a "really capable" architecture that's wonderfully suited for mobile broadband (3G/4G) devices because its potential for longer battery life compared to Intel chips. He sees a "bright future" for ARM.
On the topic of not being able to run legacy software on Windows RT, Angiulo downplayed the importance of being able to run older software versus the benefits of modern apps.
"People are talking about legacy desktop software not running, but they don't think about the customer benefit of only running modern apps. The only apps that you install from the Windows store are the kind, that as a customer, you can manage your rights to," Agiulo said.
He gave an example of dropping a PC in a pool. If you're not tied to legacy apps, you can just re-download all your apps when you get a new PC, which represents a "kind of model people are used to with a phone or tablet today."
