Qualcomm triples Windows on Arm OEM design wins since May

Qualcomm is flexing its Arm muscle in the x86 market, highlighting the push into the Windows laptop market during its Q4 2024 earnings call.

Head honcho and CEO Cristiano R Amon revealed the chipmaker had racked up 58 design wins for the Snapdragon X Plus eight-core platform, a leap nearly tripling the 20 designs it had back in May. On paper, that sounds like a big win for Arm-based PCs. However, in a market where Intel and AMD continue to have a vice-like grip on the vast majority of personal computers, these design wins need to translate into sales.

Arm-based Windows machines have long promised efficiency and battery life improvements. Yet Qualcomm's march into Windows laptops has historically been a slow affair, with plenty of hype but limited impact. For years, compatibility issues, performance trade-offs, and the sheer weight behind the Intel and AMD x86's legacy have held ...