Recently, ARM CEO Rene Haas has issued a statement that the exclusive agreement between Microsoft and Qualcomm to power laptops with the Windows on ARM operating system will officially end this year.
He said that the agreement, which was signed about two years ago, will expire this year, and other processor chip makers will be able to start producing ARM laptop processor chips soon. Haas says that companies such as AMD and NVIDIA have already begun creating their own ARM processing chips for Windows on ARM devices.
This means that ARM laptop makers such as Acer, Lenovo, HP and so on will soon be able to start developing Windows for ARM laptops using processing chips from companies other than Qualcomm.
The addition of competitors in this segment is also seen to ensure that Qualcomm remains competitive in developing ARM chips for better computers because of the criticism leveled against them for not performing as well as expected.
AMD and NVIDIA are expected to introduce their ARM offerings as early as the contract between Qualcomm and Microsoft ends this year, while MediaTek, which normally only develops processing chips for smart devices, is also expected to develop components for Windows on ARM laptops later.