Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
There's No Windows for Arm Macs Yet Because Microsoft Has Secret Exclusivity Deal With Qualcomm
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
when that deal no longer is in place, Apple will be like 5 years ahead on laptops with ARM just like they are on smartphone SoCs
Microsoft probably doesn't care because they are simply too big to fail but that market share on ultrabooks/laptops will certainly see a dent. The M1 MBP Air is like having a 3k+ bucks machine for less than 1k that runs silent, that's insane value.
Microsoft probably doesn't care because they are simply too big to fail but that market share on ultrabooks/laptops will certainly see a dent. The M1 MBP Air is like having a 3k+ bucks machine for less than 1k that runs silent, that's insane value.
I'm running parallels and Win11 ARM on my M1 - I would say it runs almost as good as parallels did on my i9 MBP.
There are a few Apps that does not work. Especially if Win App installer is built with Advanced Installer 15.5 with Visual C++ redistributable are usually the failures - as AI 15.5 does not detect MS "automatically" installing the ARM version of the Redistributable vs the x86/x64 version.
But Win11 is bat sh*t ugly..
I only have a few apps left that wont run MacOS.. But with the latest Windows releases it has become more and more evident that Microsoft is acting like Windows is an advertising platform and not an operating system.
Why? Seriously why? VMs work. Gaming? Not native anyway.
The whole MS Enterprise was built on shady foundation. I have never expected anything good to come out of MS.
Except maybe VS Code. The whole world would benefit hugely if MS kills Windows and every one just switches to Ubuntu.
Except maybe VS Code. The whole world would benefit hugely if MS kills Windows and every one just switches to Ubuntu.
VS Code came from Atom, which came from opensource under Github. Same for Electron (from Atom again) that fuels almost all MS' products now. Thank an opensource dev for all that.
Seriously why not? VMs run like crap being emulated vs being native. The state of Parallels and ARM Windows is awful.
This will encourage me to purchase Qualcomm Android phones even less.
Native Windows 11 for M1 isn’t the issue. Leaving bootcamp out of the picture for now there was no native Windows for x86 MacOS either and people used Parallels just like they are using Parallels for Windows 11 Arm now. The real issue is the lack of native apps optimized for Window 11 on Arm. Even if MS creates a Windows 11 for M1 it’s doubtful companies will optimize apps for this relatively small market.
With Mac computers all moving to M family chips, it is inevitable that Windows will be made available to run on all Mac computers, whether by using Boot Camp, or Parallels, or some other process.
There are simply too many Mac users, and Microsoft is not going to keep that portion of the market closed to their products simply because they prefer Intel based computers or something else other than Arm based Macs.
It is simply good business sense and that is what will intimately determine how it is handled.
There are simply too many Mac users, and Microsoft is not going to keep that portion of the market closed to their products simply because they prefer Intel based computers or something else other than Arm based Macs.
It is simply good business sense and that is what will intimately determine how it is handled.
Wow. I use a complex medical program that only works on Window. It runs very well and very fast using Parallels or VMWare on an intel Mac. The program is NOT optimized for ARM, yet on my M1 mac, using Windows 11 ARM with Parallels it runs just as well and very fast. I think your suspicions are not correct.
Really? You may not want or need windows, but many of us need to run a windows only program and don't want to buy a windows machine just to run one program. You see, your assumption that what you don't need or care about should apply to everyone, well it's nonsense.
Actually its really quite good.. shockingly good. It satisfied my needs to run windows apps for day to day work related stuff (all x86 an being translated by Windows 11) as well as making several games quite playable (which I don't play anyways). So I'm keeping my M1 Max MacBook Pro because I'm sure someday I'll be able to own Windows 11 ARM and run it in a VM.
A lot of us software devs who need Windows software to do our work, but prefer to use a MBP as our workhorse. And I'm sure we are not the only ones. I'm guessing a lot of gamers are quite interested in the possibility of Windows working slick and fast on the new M1 Pro/Max chips.
You can ABSOLUTELY install Windows 11 Home without a MS account during the Out of the Box Experience or setup workflow.
It’s not obvious how to do it like it is with Windows 10 Home, but you can definitely bypass the Microsoft Account sign-in screen, and then you will be prompted to create a local user account.
I do it all the time for computers that have Windows 11 Home pre-installed.
-ITG
Last edited:
Presumably in order to get Qualcomm to commit the resources to making custom chip changes to fit all of MS's desires to fit the chip to Windows. For example, just as the M1 chips have the T2 security chip now built into the M1, Windows also has some similar security stuff, and MS could possibly want things like that built into the chip. Keeping in mind back then, the volume for Windows ARM would have been forecast to be quite low, so they gave Qualcomm an exclusivity deal for a few years to make it worth the effort for Qualcomm. Now M1 has changed the whole landscape, and every chip maker and tech company and their dogs are furiously developing ARM chips, and will jump any hoops necessary to build them for Windows. Hopefully the exclusivity is about to end, and we will see an explosive race to build the best chips for Windows on ARM. And hopefully, they will end up on par with Apple's chips sooner rather than later. The fact that Qualcomm bought Nuvia, which was founded by ex-Apple chip engineers, is a good sign of the possibility. Also a good sign, is that Intel cleared out it's CEO and exec team in order to get a fresh start, and are making all the right noises that they are heading in the right direction. Interesting times. For us Apple fans, competition is good, because without it, Apple can get lazy, and can get away with murder on prices and nasty features that are bad for users but good for profits, and can also continue to be lazy with its software quality control. If Windows on ARM is actually performing very well, then Apple have to be more tight and honest.
You mean ... up in ARMs? I mean c'mon. Talk about a missed opportunity.
Seems like any business interaction with Qualcomm always includes hang you up by the balls exclusivity deals
Love the dramatic title. I can't believe Mircosoft didn't consult with all the important MacRumors members before this decision.
I think they probably struck the deal either at that time which is when they announced that Windows 10 could run x86 Windows apps on ARM, or way earlier than that -- before they released that cursed Surface RT tablet in 2012.
10 years from 2012 seems to make sense to me, which means it might end some time next year.
This is not correct. It's also possible to run WoA11 with VMWare's tech preview, with the added benefit that you don't need to deal with Parallels' less-than-helpful support staff.
[...]
Apple silicon Mac owners who need Windows access can use Parallels 16.5 or later to run Insider Preview builds of Windows 10 and 11 that have been created for Arm hardware, but there are often issues to deal with. Parallels continues to be the only solution because Microsoft has made no licensed retail version of Arm Windows available for Apple silicon Macs.
Lol it’s never BEEN a secret.
Anyone remember the first MS Surface X using a Qualcomm ARM chip heavily based off their mobile chip?! Yeah wasn’t a secrete at all.
Each SoC has their own subtleties which requires the vendor to write their own OS drivers. You see this with any ARM based SoC that Linux drivers come from the vendor. Apple would need to write those drivers themselves for WoA and not Microsoft.
Such drivel!
The only reason there is a second investigation is because of NVidia CEO’s heritage and physical appearance! Racism at the corporate level while claiming security risk
Arm Holdings has been sold off before - outside of the UK and deals and it’s licenses never affected. It’s IP NEVER affected. NVidia purchasing ARM will NOT affect current or future licenses or deals or the protection of its IP!
Read the history of Arm Holdings Inc since it was spun off please before spitting this drivel again. Please.
Everybody running modern line of business software. They don’t tend to write Mac versions of their software.