Game Changer? (Premium)

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 850 announcement is a bit more profound than is immediately obvious. If the firm's multi-year plan works out, Intel is in serious trouble in the PC market.

Again. Or something.

It all started out so promising. Microsoft announced in December 2016 that it was porting Windows 10 to the ARM platform, starting with Qualcomm, the market leader.

"I am suddenly very excited for a future in which portable PCs can be true best-of-breed devices that meld the best of the PC with the best of today’s mobile devices, and do so in a way that isn’t burdened by compromise," I wrote at the time.

So, yes, I was immediately onboard. But then I had some inside information about Microsoft's rationale for hooking up with Qualcomm: It was tired of Intel, with its near monopoly in the PC market, not moving quickly enough to address the battery life and connectivity issues that were making PCs less and less relevant.

Intel, it decided, needed a kick in the ass.

We then spent most of 2017 waiting for the revolution to start. But there were a few moments of clarity.

In May, at last year's Computex, Microsoft announced its Always Connected PC initiative. Coming PCs based on both Intel and Qualcomm chipsets would offer integrated cellular broadband capabilities and great battery life. And they would utilize a Microsoft-made x86 emulation technology that would let (32-bit) Windows desktop applications run normally.

Then, in September, we learned that Microsoft's PC maker partners were "on track" to deliver the first ARM-based Always Connected PCs by the end of the year. That never actually happened, however, and the first ARM-based PCs didn't arrive until this past spring. In fact, only this week are they really shipping broadly.

Brad and I got our first hands-on time with the first two Windows 10 on ARM PCs, the HP Envy x2 and the ASUS NovaGo, back in December. The former, in particular, seemed to offer an impressive industrial design with premium touches. And both would be sold with reasonable price tags.

And then the bottom fell out.

I identified two key problems with this platform in reviewing the HP Envy x2. First, Windows 10 on ARM has major and confusing compatibility issues because it can only run 32-bit (Intel x86) desktop applications (and, as it turns out, 32-bit Store apps too). And second, the performance is terrible. Just terrible.

"While Windows 10 on ARM is, in some ways, a technological marvel, the performance and compatibility issues are far too problematic for PC users," I concluded. "This platform is wrong for traditional PCs."

Since writing that review, I spoke with Qualcomm and found out about their plans to jump-start the Windows 10 on ARM efforts. Like many, I was worried if the removal of Terry Myerson from Microsoft---he was a key enabler of Windows 10 on ARM and Qualcomm's involvement with the platform---meant that this platform had hit a dead-end. Further, I was nervous that Qua...