Why hasn’t Google Chrome released the native version of ARM

Qualcomm and Microsoft’s Windows 10 ARM device is currently not developing smoothly. Although the vision is good, there are not many users willing to buy such devices.

There are actually many reasons why users are unwilling to buy, but perhaps the biggest problem is that the compatibility of such devices is not as good as traditional laptops.

For example, traditional desktop software theoretically does not support such ARM notebooks, but Microsoft uses emulators in Windows 10 to run traditional software.

The consequence of using the emulator is that currently only 32-bit applications are supported but not 64-bit applications. The simultaneous operation of the emulator will reduce software performance.

Currently using Google Chrome on Windows 10 ARM devices requires downloading and installing the 32-bit version of Google Chrome and running it through the Microsoft x86 emulator.

For Google Chrome, which has relatively high performance and hardware resource requirements, the performance degradation caused by running the simulator is still very obvious.

This is why many users urgently need Google Chrome to develop a native ARM version. With the native version, the performance will naturally be better than the simulator.

But Google Chrome has not launched the ARM version so far. The Firefox browser has already launched the ARM native version.

Microsoft Edge based on Chromium now also supports ARM. It’s wrong to say that Google to encounter technical problems that cannot be resolved.

Qualcomm, which is actively promoting Windows 10 ARM devices, seems to be anxious. After all, this is the beginning of Qualcomm’s entry into the desktop market, so it must be active.

So Qualcomm cooperated with Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google from the beginning, hoping that these companies can re-adapt various popular software to support ARM.

However, Google Chrome has not supported it for several years. No one knows why Google Chrome still does not support the ARM system.

In an interview recently, the senior director of Qualcomm Product Management Miguel Nunes said that Google Chrome did not launch the native ARM version because Google encountered technical problems.

What really hinders the launch of the native version of Google Chrome is a policy issue. Qualcomm said that the company’s work has been completed and currently only waiting for Google to launch a new native version.

“The Chrome browser is a Chrome engine and a couple of things (sic). So it is not a technical problem, but a political problem. Nothing really prevents them, they just haven’t done it yet,” explained Nunes. “In fact, everything worked, it works well. It’s just a matter of them making it publicly available.”

The specific policy issue here refers to Qualcomm and did not disclose it, but you can guess what it is. Windows 10 ARM devices and Google Chromebooks are competitors. Perhaps this is a so-called policy issue. Google deliberately does not release the original version.

Via: androidauthority