Mind you, Microsoft has already introduced several mobile operating systems geared towards ARM devices, but this time around it appears that the outfit's next proper desktop OS will support ARM. Over the past few weeks we reported about the development on several occasions and we heard the first rumours of a ARM support in the summer of 2010. According to our sources, Microsoft developers are already developing optimized versions of Office and other popular MS software.
Ballmer showed off several demo systems running new Windows on ARM architecture and SoC solutions from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia. There is no word on the name of the new OS, but most observers simply call it Windows 8.
It is quite clear that Microsoft won't stand back and watch Google and Apple seize the ARM market without a fight. It is still too early to say when the new OS will appear on the market, but we might see Windows tablets based on ARM processors sooner than we expected.
More here.