Intel plans a CES coup: Android and Windows in the same computer
Dual OS could dilute Windows dominance, if Microsoft doesn't kill it first — The PC industry isn't doing so well. Sales have dramatically slumped, despite the industry's efforts to tempt consumers with Windows 8 tablets and transforming touchscreen laptops.
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel has spent three years nudging Microsoft on mobile: at CES 2011 an Intel executive complained Microsoft's tablet OS was too long in coming, and by late 2012 the chipmaker was convening HP, Samsung and other OEMs around Windows 8 tablet launches — even as Dell admitted Android devices had disappointed while prepping its own Windows 8 lineup. None of it stopped the slump the industry itself concedes: PC sales have fallen dramatically despite Windows 8 tablets and convertible touch laptops.
Now Intel is flipping from cheerleader to hedge. Its plan to show a single computer running both Android and Windows at CES puts the company that co-owns the Wintel franchise behind its partner's biggest competitive threat — a move rumored to dilute Windows' PC dominance, and one that drew pickups across eight outlets including VentureBeat, Gigaom and Softpedia within days.
First-order effects
- OEMs like HP, Samsung and Dell get a vendor-sanctioned template for shipping Android and Windows on one machine, removing the either-or choice that has defined their PC and tablet lines.
- Microsoft faces the immediate awkwardness of its founding silicon partner demonstrating a rival OS on Wintel hardware at the industry's flagship show.
Second-order effects
- If the dual-OS design spreads, Microsoft is pushed into deciding whether to tolerate or restrict the configuration in its Windows licensing terms with PC makers.
- Google gains a distribution route for Android onto x86 desktops and laptops that it never secured through its own hardware efforts — at Intel's initiative rather than its own.
Third-order effects
- Control over which operating systems reach the PC shifts another notch from software vendors toward silicon suppliers, who can bundle ecosystems to defend their own unit volumes when PC demand sags.
- A durable dual-boot category would fragment the assumption that a device belongs to one platform owner, complicating app economics, security patching and support models across the PC industry.
The trend: As PC sales stagnate, chipmakers are positioning themselves as the arbiters of which operating systems ship on the hardware — bundling rival ecosystems rather than waiting on any single platform owner.