People DO NOT want ARM on their pcs, Windows RT should have teached a leasson to everyone, in fact it did, or we whould be swiming in ARM notebooks running Windows RT by now.
So big was the shock that people buying BT tablets are even asking if its Windows RT or not.
Also the upgraded PI-2 does not seems to have upgraded anything else besides cpu and memory, its good, but just not good enoght, no sata, emmc, gb lan, H265... the ODROID-C1 is obiusly a lot better for the same price.
You have raised some good points, but I think that the relative failure of the Microsoft Windows RT, was NOT just because of the Arm chip, but because of other reasons (as well), such as insisting on a CLOSED software market (owned by Microsoft), somewhat high hardware costs (relatively, but some might argue the prices were not too bad) and the fact that Microsoft is NOT necessarily popular in the market place, with things that they have NOT yet built up as a "closed" monopoly, such as Windows (my opinion).
I think that the raspberry PI 2, has got some good advantages for some usages, such as Electronic/robotic/embedded projects, due to its somewhat large add-on community (but not necessarily as big as the Arduino infrastructure). Also for some kinds of educational and other uses, due to its significant software (availability) community.
Honestly, ARM had it's best chance to break into the traditional PC space in 2012 with Windows RT, but it didn't.
Microsoft committed billions of dollars to sell Windows on ARM to consumers. But not only was it not successful, it was a complete failure. Microsoft even had Nvidia and Qualcomm in their corner. Microsoft sold WoA as Windows RT, but it was a Windows that couldn't run Windows program. As all those windows programs only run on the Intel compatible processors they were written for. It was familiarity and compatibility that consumers cared most for, not performance or cost.
Today, new generations of Intel chips have reduced costs and improved low power performance. Today the value proposition of ARM versus Intel is lower than it was 2012 and we've seen the opposite shift taking place. Intel is gaining ground over ARM in operating systems with no x86 legacy, like chrome OS.
ARM will probably never get a better opportunity than its already had, so I'm of the opinion its never going to happen(in the foreseeable future).
You have raised many good points.
(My Opinion is) The market place is getting somewhat complicated. One of these complications, is that Intel, maybe getting close to the (current technological) "laws of Physics" limits.
i.e. We could get to a point (which we may already be close to), where new Intel cpu releases, take longer and longer, have more and more problems/delays and offer less and less improvements, compared to previous models.
So if (in the somewhat near future), the new Intel cpus, offer slight/modest performance improvement, little/no cost improvements and perhaps only moderate/light power consumption improvements. Then people may dramatically reduce their purchases of new/fresh computers.
i.e. Why buy an expensive new PC, when your old one runs everything that you want it to, and the new one is only 2% faster, uses a bit less electricity and is the same cost (for the cpu), as it was in the old generation.
In fairness to Intel, the current crop of cpus, are at least reducing the power consumption for the cpu, from what I hear/expect.
But I am expecting little/no cost (cpu) reduction, and only modest (small) speed improvements. But if Intel prove me wrong here, then GREAT!.
Whereas the arm "end" of the market, has a tendency to need regular updates and/or buying more, of the hardware.
E.g. Mobile phone stuff tends to be regularly changed (perhaps every couple of years), due to improvements in models and/or early failure of the device and/or lost/stolen/broken etc.
i.e. Arm are building up a regular and somewhat consistent/reliable profit/money/turnover stream.
But Intel are relatively reliant on producing faster/better/greater cpus at every new generation.
tl;dr Intel = possibly reaching end of road with current laws of physics. But eventually new inventions will almost certainly move things forward again.
Arm = Probably at least 5 to 10 years of improvements, for them to catch up with the later (2015/2016) Intel chips process technologies and architectures.
Win10
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