Did Qualcomm have exclusivity for Windows on ARM?

The Surface Pro X includes a Microsoft SQ2 SoC based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G. © Microsoft.

Since 2017, Microsoft has released versions of Windows 10 and 11 running on ARM chips, but the company has never shown any interest in selling Windows ARM licenses to anyone other than PC builders. If you want a Windows ARM license, you need to buy the PC that comes with it. As we’ve seen, it’s possible to run Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi as well as in virtualization applications running on Apple’s newer ARM Macs, but this is not officially supported by Microsoft, and the company has never explained why.

One reason for this limited distribution put forward in an article by XDA Developers is that Qualcomm secretly struck an exclusive deal with Microsoft for Windows on ARM. However, “people familiar” with the situation revealed that this agreement is about to expire. Whether or not this agreement with Qualcomm exists, no one can deny that Microsoft announced the availability of Windows on ARM with the cooperation of Qualcomm back in 2016. Since then, Windows ARM systems have been equipped exclusively with Qualcomm made chips, for example the ECS LIVA QC710, which we spoke about very recently.

The end of this exclusive deal with Qualcomm, assuming it exists, would open the door for other chipmakers to try their luck. Rick Tsai, CEO of ARM chipmaker MediaTek, said in a company earnings conference call that MediaTek “certainly intends” to run Windows on its chips. Users of Macs with M1 chips would also benefit by having access to a virtualized, official and optimized version of Windows 11. Since M1 chips are more efficient than anything Qualcomm offers, we think Windows on Mac could finally become something people can actually use.

⇨ Ars Technica, Andrew Cunningham, “Qualcomm exclusivity deal might be keeping Windows from running on other ARM chips.”

2021-11-23