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This entire saga about "the inevitability of ARM on the desktop is the beginning of the end for x86" reminds me of other entertaining, whimsical, slightly daft fairy tales like "Intel is going to make GPUs obsolete with Larrabee," and it is most instructive in this case to take Intel's take on Windows 8. Intel dearly loves Windows 8, warts, ARM, and all.
What is it with the mindless "one size must fit all" lunacy that seems to fill so many heads? There is no reason on earth why ARM would ever be thought to usurp and replace x86--rather, ARM will continue to do as it has always done--to compliment x86 as opposed to replacing it, exactly in the sense of how mobile functionality currently compliments desktop functionality. It may very well be, too, that with the passage of time and the continuing expertise in FAB process reduction and escalating yields, that x86 ultimately renders most commercial (as opposed to industrial) uses of ARM entirely void of either substance or importance. Few people today care to think about that, which is an oddity in itself.
Who is it who also thinks, with such a one track mind, that "mobile" is for some strange reason going to usurp "desktop" as in "replace" the desktop? As long as people enjoy gorgeous monitors that are measured diagonally in feet as opposed to inches, spacious and tactile, hand-sized keyboards, pointing devices with incredible accuracy, sound capability that rivals that of movie theaters--and much more--how is "mobile" supposed to replace the market for that? It isn't, plain and simple. Mobile always has been and always will be an entirely separate market for so many good, solid reasons that it would take me weeks just to think of most of them and write them all down.
Not only that--but ARM in any iteration whatever is in no position to "rival full x86 desktop support." It's not even close enough to shout. If Intel with all its muscle and money couldn't pull x86 out of the desktop and move it to Itanium, who else is going to do it? As far as nVidia and its newer ARM processors go, I recall no announcement from nVidia stating that at any time in the future it foresaw its ARM business overtaking and replacing its x86 business. Just like was done so often and so erroneously with Larrabee, all of these things have been twisted so far out of context that they no longer even make sense.
What I have *always* imagined Win8's x86 ARM support would be is one GUI interface for tablets and other mobile devices as they develop, coexisting nicely with Microsoft's traditional x86 *Desktop* GUI. Yea, I mean, I certainly am not going to be happy with greasy fingerprints all over my "whopping" 1024x768 screen--just won't cut it--not even slightly interested. I think Microsoft has got it exactly right. There is a market for mobile and there is a market for desktop and no matter how it is sliced, mobile will never replace the desktop tomorrow, any more so than it has replaced it today.
Last, Intel isn't going anywhere--any notion to the contrary is absolute fantasy...;) (Where do these notions--like Larrabee--originate?) The world markets are far larger and far more complex than the very simple "ARM vs x86" or "mobile vs. desktop" scenarios people like to imagine, for some reason. Surely cross compatibility will come--but one market completely replacing the other? Nah--not gonna' happen.
