ARM as a primary architecture

[Chris Murphy]

On Mar 22, 2012, at 8:04 AM, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
>> 
> 
> Apples and oranges. You could print the same stats a few years ago about cars
> vs scooters/bicycles
> 
> Guess what all the Chinese/Indian bicycle riders started to buy as soon as
> they had the means to…

They did not, are not. Especially in congested cities. Most New Yorkers in Manhattan can afford cars. They don't have them. There's other infrastructure that works better, and they don't need to individually own it.

You're making assumptions that people really want desktop machines, it's just a matter of affording it. You're applying your own preferences to a huge market, which doesn't have your requirements, but does have its own. Desktops have from day 1 been *irritating* to most users. They were not embraced in the home. They were never loved. They came into the home via work, hobbyists, kids for school work, and then entertainment (music, pictures, video) and became useful.

Mobile and tablets are immediately useful. It took almost no time for the market to grow up once a certain company released a product. And people love these things. Normal every day non-geeks cry if they get broken or lost.

> 
> All those numbers show is that the developing countries are actually
> developing (surprise!), and that they transition from nothing to cheapest
> solution possible. That does not mean they'll stick to this stage forever.

It's like arguing they will build landlines, because they're more reliable and have better call quality. And cell phones are just a stage that they won't be in forever.

Wrong argument.


Chris