According to PCWORLD, Qualcomm announced this Friday that sales of laptops under Snapdragon X finally began to take off after timid beginnings. Is this a statistical anomaly, or the start of the big paradigm change announced by the firm?
When the Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors finally released last summer after an endless wait, some observers expected the market immediately overwhelmed by a real ARM processor tsunami, with all that implies for the historic tauliers of the sector which remain focused on the X86 architecture. It must be said that this platform has serious arguments, with its completely honorable power for utility laptops and absolutely remarkable energy management – with all that that implies in terms of autonomy.
Timid beginnings …
But this success has proven to be less resounding than expected. Even if the company had put the small dishes in the big ones with a very aggressive communication campaign, the public was rather cautious. And it is perfectly understandable, knowing that these components are still far from integrating without friction into the current ecosystem.
As a reminder, the fundamental differences between the two architectures need to go through an emulation process which, even if it has already made substantial progress in a few months, is not yet completely mature. A crippling point for many Windows users, who want above all to use their usual software without difficulty.
… but an encouraging dynamic
However, the latest trends seem encouraging for the Board of Directors of Qualcomm. According to the executive director Cristiano Amon quoted by PCworld, in December 2024, the company crossed a landing: in the United States, it exceeded the symbolic bar of the 10 % market share on the Windows laptops segment above $ 800. An encouraging sign that seems to indicate that the company is on the right track – especially since it continues to actively work on compatibility problems that slow down the adoption of its processors.
« The application ecosystem continues to develop with native snapdragon applications now comprising 20 of the most popular VPNs, 50 of the most popular cloud safety and storage applications, as well as new applications for creators “Said Amon.
It should be noted, however, that the manager carefully avoided mentioning the Creative applications of the Adobe suitelike the essentials premiere pro and after effect, or video games whose level of emulation remains very heterogeneous. There is therefore a lot of work before this platform arrives at maturity, and that it cannot be adopted en masse by users.
But the firm still seems confident, and took the opportunity to announce that more than 80 new portable models under Snapdragon X were already in preparation in the main integrators of the industry like Asus, Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo.
It will therefore be interesting to see if these new products will finally allow Arm processors to meet the success that seemed promised to them, especially on European territory. At the same time, the reactions of Intel and AMD will also have to watch, which seem particularly feverish compared to the possible rise in this platform.
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