Hard War

Being the nerd I am I’ve kept a keen eye on all the happenings at IDF 2011. The usual things have held my interest – Intels Ivybridge ‘tock’ architecture and X79 ‘Sandybrige E’ in particular. However, the biggest surprise of the show was the announcement in Intel CEO Paul Ottelinis key note that starting next year Android will be optimized for x86. For those of you unfamiliar, X86 is the instruction set that computers in the traditional sense of the word have used since around 1978 (though now in a highly modified form).

Intel has long since made clear its intentions to break into the mobile space. At this point, it’s worth running over why. Near domination of the PC CPU market, combined with slower than usual sales of laptops and PCs mean that new revenue streams must be sought. In turn, the reason for this reduction is a decreased need for ‘moar powa’  and a cannibalisation of the market by at first netbooks, and now tablets.

However, x86 was never designed with power efficiency in mind, and this is why ARM has become so very dominant in the mobile computing space. Intels newest ‘Sandybridge’ architecture is very power efficient in terms of ‘performance per watt’ but still remain wholly unsuitable for tablets or mobile phones requiring heavy, all day use.  So for x86 people to be banding about not just the word ‘compatible’ but ‘optimized’ in regards to Android is surprising.


I had always assumed that Intels inevitable transition to mobile would be with Microsoft or Meego Linux as its bedfellow rather than Google. The Atom lines newest iteration ‘medfield’ does have the advantage of 32nm lithography over its Arm rivals 40nm chips, and it is perhaps this that negates the disadvantages of using a less efficient instruction set. In the long run, Intel  does appear to be set on sticking to x86 in the mobile space. To do this it will either have to spend on fabs to keep its lithographic process ahead of its rivals or it’ll have to develop complex additions to the instruction set to compete with ARM. While competition in any market is good, should Intel and x86 succeed in the mobile space, their unflinching domination of desktop CPUs leaves me (perhaps prematurely) concerned for ARMs ability to compete against the chip juggernaught.

To spend or not to spend.

So I was amongst the lucky few who managed to get my hands on a HP Touchpad last week. Its a marvellous bit of kit..... For £89.99. However this isn't going to be a post about how good or bad the Touchpad itself is but more a going over, what for me, is old ground when it comes to apps. The Touchpad has become the poster boy for some of the current problems faced by discerning consumers when it comes to paying for apps.

The question I return to is this: As Android and iOS have now established themselves as the markets dominant players are our paid for apps now more likely to be with us with us until our death bed? Doggcatcher, my most treasured Podcast app has gone through many iterations since I first purchased it nearly two years ago, and has matured from what was once a clunky, ugly piece of software into a highly intuitive, but still fairly ugly piece of software. Questions of whether you'd want to turn up to the Android ball with Doggcatcher on your arm aside, it seems reasonable to expect that she'll get better with age.

HP Touchpad apps however, will not. In fact, they are already on death row. The beauty of smartphones or smart anything really, is that its functionality can be augmented and customised beyond its shipped state. With WebOS not being able to do basic tasks like play (obviously legal) DivX files, I'd like to download an app that can enable this functionality. Except that I don't want to pay for something that I'm only going to use for a few months until some bright spark creates a Honeycomb Rom. Phones and tablets are replaced roughly every 18 months, and what happens if an OS you've spent £50 on apps for dies? Apps are not media in the sense that they are like games that can be completed and discarded, they can be much more part of your everyday life.

Paradoxically with the demise of the Touchpad we've seen two things. Both a weakening of the perception that apps you pay for are yours, forever, and yet, a strengthening of the chance that in fact they will be. Android and iOS are here to stay, and though its now down to individual developers to continue support for their applications I think its also fair to say that a certain element of risk has been removed when it comes to paid for apps. Go spend your money!