This is kind of a back-handed way to confirm something, but that seems to be the way things work at Microsoft when it comes to Windows 8.
Late last year, there was a rumor that Microsoft had chose to drop the Desktop from Windows 8 on ARM. This would have meant, if right, that all Windows 8 ARM apps would have to be Metro-style applications. Metro-style applications are those which make use of the WinRT Windows 8 runtime/framework. (They also happen to adopt the “Metro” look and feel/design conventions, which confusingly are not known as “Metro-style.” I guess they’re just in the Metro style.)
(A related aside: I’ve seen a few bloggers posting recently that Microsoft execs said Desktop apps would never run on Windows 8 on ARM. That is untrue. Here’s my post from last year explaining how this would work.)
When various Microsoft watchers, customers and partners questioned Microsoft officials whether the “no Desktop on Windows 8 on ARM” rumors from last December were right, we received no official response. No confirmation. No denial. We questioned again during the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2012. No confirmation, no denial.
On February 7 on the “Building Windows 8 blog,” Microsoft execs posted on how apps will be able to leverage power-saving features that Microsoft is building to improve battery-life consumption on Windows 8 devices. Buried in that post, is a mention of SoC (system on a chip) devices. ARM-based tablets and PCs are considered SoC devices. (There will be Intel and AMD SoC devices, as well, we’ve heard.)
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