Intel stops developing chips for mobile. Goodbye Surface phone?

[anon(5969054)]

Source: Forbes Welcome
I hope this is not bad news for a Surface phone....

 

[Dusteater]

It didn't say they have stopped developing them outright. It just says Broxton has been cancelled. This isn't much of a surprise. It's a year behind their Core parts. Why release a Skylake Atom part at the same time as Kaby Lake Core parts? I think they need to get Atom back on track and in sync with the rest of their lineup.

Surface Phone will more than likely use a Qualcomm 830 chip. This has more implications for the Surface 4 than anything else. With no new chip to power it, will they make a Surface 4, or go with Kaby Lake Core M instead?

 

[dormamu]

If Microsoft is not going for a x86 chipset, it will be streaming the win32 applications in continuum with the Surface phone. A half assed solution if you ask me and never as good as a native experience. Another blow for the windows mobile ecosystem

 

[SammyD97]

A half assed solution if you ask me

They can't really pull a processor out of their asses now can they. Make do with what you have.

 

[anon(5969054)]

Now it's official. No more Intels for mobiles. Im seriously curious what this means for the Surface line.... tablets and the rumored phone...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10288/intel-broxton-sofia-smartphone-socs-cancelled

I wonder why nobody on Windows Central seems to care/know about this...

 

[anon(8532178)]

This is highly unlikely but maybe AMD has something? That MSFT can work with. But unless you want a surface heater phone.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android (from my 5x or V10)

 

[Migi2015]

The delay to spring 2017 is probably to re-design the phone with ARM instead of the planned Atom. Or Surface Phone is just a pipe dream and will never happen. I mean think about it. Even if a Surface Phone running on ARM came with all the apps that exist on iOS on Day 1 - who would buy it outside of MS fanboys? There is no scenario where Surface Phone sells 10 million+/quarter.

 

[Migi2015]

Now it's official. No more Intels for mobiles. Im seriously curious what this means for the Surface line.... tablets and the rumored phone...

Intel's Changing Future: Smartphone SoCs Broxton & SoFIA Officially Cancelled

I wonder why nobody on Windows Central seems to care/know about this...

There is a weird fetish on this site and some other Windows sites for x86 phone. Why would MS make such a device for a few thousand fanboys?

 

[a5cent]

1)
The suspicion that MS is developing and will eventually release a "surface phone" has never been more than a rumor, albeit a somewhat credible rumor.

2)
The rumor that this surface phone will run x86 desktop software, although technically possible, has never been credible. No credible source has ever mentioned such a thing. In fact most credible sources dismiss it.

3)
The idea that such a surface phone would run W10M and x86 desktop software has never been more than pure BS (technically neither possible nor desirable, as that's what W10 is for).

 

[theefman]

The suspicion that MS is developing and will eventually release a "surface phone" has never been more than a rumor, albeit a somewhat credible rumor. The idea that this surface phone will run x86 desktop software has never been credible however. No credible source has ever mentioned such a thing. In fact most credible sources dismiss it.

The idea that such a surface phone would run W10M and x86 desktop apps has never been more than pure BS (technically neither possible or desirable, as that's what W10 is for).

Its actually been quite fascinating to see how this went from wishful thinking, to rumored then "confirmed" and now disappointment, classic case of people believing what they want to believe despite all facts pointing to the contrary....

 

[a5cent]

Its actually been quite fascinating to see how this went from wishful thinking, to rumored then "confirmed" and now disappointment, classic case of people believing what they want to believe despite all facts pointing to the contrary....

I agree.
I'd like to state for the record however, that this "evolution of opinion" doesn't apply to me. I stated, on the very first days the surface phone rumors started circulating, that we'd never see x86 desktop software running on W10M, and I have the post history to prove it.
The fact that such a BS rumour wasn't killed in its infancy is a testament to the technical illiteracy of what passes for "tech press" these days.

 

[pedrorito]

Maybe MS is planning to use core m3 in the surface phone?
Intel is bringing its Core M processors to smartphones

I think it will be the key feature. Worth to call it "surface" with that amazing cpu!

 

[dragonking1]

The idea that such a surface phone would run W10M and x86 desktop software has never been more than pure BS (technically neither possible nor desirable, as that's what W10 is for).

Why is it not desirable? I think being able to use your phone as an actual portable desktop with continuum would be a good feature.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[a5cent]

Why is it not desirable? I think being able to use your phone as an actual portable desktop with continuum would be a good feature.

I wasn't as clear as I could have been.

I'm not saying that the ability to run Win32 based desktop software on your phone (when connected to a larger screen) is undesirable. I'm saying that MS bloating W10M to the point of it being able to do so would be undesirable. MS will never do that, but I'll skip the details of exactly why. It shouldn't be important anyway, as we already have an OS that can run such desktop software. It's called W10.

In short: Any computing device intended to run Win32 based desktop software, even if it looks like a phone, will simply come with W10 installed rather than W10M.

On a side note: I do actually think that running Win32 based desktop software on a resource constrained phone-sized device is a bad idea. I think you and everyone else wanting that capability have a legitimate desire, but your not stipulating the best solution to the problem you want solved. The best short term solution involves a remote desktop (anyone who needs Win32 software on their phone that badly will be able to set this up), while the best long term solution would involve porting the Win32 app to UWP. All of that's a separate issue however.

 

[HeyCori]

Want to run Win32 apps on your phone? Microsoft already has a solution for you. :wink:

Microsoft Remote Desktop Preview

 

[Spectrum90]

They might comeback with a 5g SoC in a couple of years.

If converged devices are the future, there is a profitable niche for mobile x86 SoCs in the enterprise market.