Microsoft Said to Limit Chipmakers Using Windows to Only One Tablet-Maker
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has asked chipmakers that want to use the next version of Windows for tablets to work with no more than one computer manufacturer, three people with knowledge of the plan said.
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported restriction lands midway through a deliberate arc: Microsoft confirmed in December 2010 that the next Windows would run on ARM chips, breaking its dependence on Intel silicon for tablets, and took heat at CES when an Intel executive complained publicly that the tablet OS was taking too long. By pairing the ARM effort with a cap — each chipmaker limited to a single computer manufacturer — Microsoft would be converting its usual broad-licensing model into a curated, invitation-only program.
The timing matters because the pressure on Microsoft to answer the iPad is explicit in the record: analysts still treat Windows and Office licenses as the company's bread-and-butter revenue, so a controlled tablet launch protects both the brand and the license economics. If the Bloomberg report is accurate, the choice of which OEM each silicon vendor partners with becomes one of the highest-stakes allocation decisions in the PC industry this cycle.
First-order effects
- Each ARM-class chipmaker must immediately choose one computer manufacturer as its Windows tablet partner, shrinking a traditionally open licensing field to a handful of privileged pairings ahead of the next Windows release.
- Computer manufacturers left without a chipmaker slot lose their route to next-generation Windows tablets and face building their tablet lines on rival operating systems instead.
Second-order effects
- Exclusivity turns the partnership slots into bargaining chips: favored OEMs gain differentiation while excluded rivals are pushed harder toward Google's Android for their tablet roadmaps, splitting the Windows hardware camp.
- For the chipmakers themselves, a single-partner structure concentrates design resources on one deep co-engineering effort rather than spreading reference designs across many customers — closer to the Apple silicon-to-product model than the classic PC clone market.
Third-order effects
- If the cap holds through launch, Microsoft would be structurally trading license volume for quality control over the tablet experience — a retreat from the horizontal Wintel model that built the PC industry, and a signal that the company sees tight hardware curation as the price of competing with integrated devices.
- A successful gated program would give Microsoft leverage to keep dictating hardware terms in future Windows cycles, permanently altering its negotiating posture toward both chip vendors and PC makers.
The trend: Microsoft's tablet push marks a bend away from open Wintel licensing toward Apple-style vertical control, with the company curating silicon-and-hardware pairings instead of selling Windows to whoever builds a box.