Qualcomm: Windows 8 blurs product lines, expect Snapdragon clamshell devices

When is a tablet a PC?

15 September 2011 13:27 GMT / By Stuart Miles

  Qualcomm has said that Microsoft’s Windows 8 will blur the lines of what is a PC and what is a smartphone even more, as companies look to bring out devices that merge traditional form factors.
In an exclusive one-to-one chat at the company’s IQ event in Istanbul on Wednesday, senior vice president Christiano Amon told Pocket-lint that "the line is blurring" between traditional mobile devices and laptops.
"If a tablet comes with a keyboard is it a tablet or a laptop?" questioned Amon.
The comment comes off the back of Microsoft’s announcement that Windows 8 would allow manufacturers to build desktops, laptops and tablets, all running the new touch-friendly operating system.
In a move that is likely to scare its rivals, Amon described a future that saw Qualcomm go up against Intel and AMD, as well as its more traditional mobile chip competitors Nvidia and Texas Instruments, for the right to power the Windows devices of tomorrow.
"You could see Snapdragon in mobiles, tablets and clamshell devices in the future - if manufacturers wanted to do that," he explained.
Amon knows that such a move is now possible thanks to the next-generation of processors rolling out from Qualcomm to PC, phone and tablet makers over the next couple of months. The company’s top Snapdragon offering is a quad-core 2.5GHz processor that comes with a number of extra features like 3D, HD playback, 3G and LTE built in - something that is certainly appealing to device makers.
So is it the death of the PC as we know it? Amon isn’t ready to answer that "rather big" question yet, but is happy to admit to us that "the form factors for the PC are being redefined", adding that "two sectors are likely to become one".
Exciting - and scary - stuff.
Do you think Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 8, will kill the PC as we know it, creating instead a humongous world of devices that are neither PCs, laptops, tablets or phones? Let us know in the comments below...
source:  http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42077/windows-8-blurs-lines-tablets-pc