Former President of the Windows Division Steven Sinofsky has praised Apple’s move to ARM based custom Apple silicon from Intel chips. He quit Microsoft in 2012, very soon after the release of Windows RT and Surface hardware.
Windows 8 was a disaster as it could not offer proper functionality – it was a case of focusing more on form over functionality. The operating system was made with touch input in mind and it forced people with only “keyboard and mouse” input mechanism to get adjusted. However, people were not able to adjust and Windows 8 received some of the most negative reviews in the operating system space.
“Quite simply, what we’re seeing is some of the most remarkable product engineering over time in history,” commented Sinofsky on Apple’s transition from Intel to ARM chips on the Mac platform.
“My jaw dropped when [Apple CEO] Tim Cook discussed the transition to Apple silicon as a two-year journey. First, that’s like no time at all. Second, that’s an incredibly long time to tell everyone how long it will take and that they should be patient.”
Sinofsky has been all praises for Apple in the recent past. He has talked at length about various Apple products on Twitter – creating long threads. He has also spoken openly about what went wrong with Windows 8’s move to fight the iPad and the ARM based Windows RT. “Apple is a company that has a point of view – when the point of view lines up with a great product people love, it can become an unstoppable force.”
Microsoft tried its hand at bringing ARM based machines back in 2012 by specifically creating Windows RT. The company also launched Surface RT but it failed badly due to various reasons such as slow and sluggish performance, lack of properly supported apps, and more.
However, Microsoft does not appear to have given up on ARM as the company recently released the Surface Pro X which features a Qualcomm chip.
