Microsoft’s support for ARM-based chips not a panacea; it’s a bare minimum

Better late than never–that is what Microsoft’s announcement at CES last week on embracing the ARM architecture amounts to saying.

That also shows how desperate–and very understandably so–the Redmond-based software maker is to take the ‘smart phone and tablet’ trip, which it has missed time and again, partly because it repeatedly chose to take the Intel bus.

Microsoft new decision means that instead of just being Intel and AMD-based, a Windows platform could be developed for chips from players like Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments as well. While that doesn’t ensure that Windows would start gaining market share in the smart phone and tablet categories, but then it certainly is the first and foremost step that Microsoft needed to take.