Microsoft’s hardware partners are slowly releasing Windows 10 PCs with all-day battery life thanks to Snapdragon processors, and 64-bit apps will be supported.
Erin Chappie, General Manager for Windows, confirmed to Engadget that Microsoft will be announcing an SDK for ARM64 apps during this year’s Build developer conference. The conference, as per last year, will be held in Seattle on May 7th.
Currently, ARM-based Windows devices from Microsoft suffer from only supporting 32-bit apps. Both 32 and 64-bit apps will need to be recompiled by developers to be natively supported, and there’s little Microsoft can do if they decide it’s not worth bothering.
Microsoft has built up many legacy desktop apps over the years which could enable Windows on ARM devices to become a thriving and capable platform if developers choose to support it.
These apps can all be emulated, but there have already been concerns raised about their performance.
As has often been the case in recent years, Microsoft could find itself in the vicious cycle of consumers not buying devices because not enough apps are supported or run poorly, and developers not supporting the platform because there are not enough consumers.
These devices could have a better chance at gaining traction due to their long battery life, such as the 20 hours of the HP Envy x2, and built-in LTE connectivity enabling work on the move.
The SDK for ARM64 will support both UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps as well as traditional desktop apps.
Do you plan on checking out the upcoming SDK? Let us know in the comments.
