Microsoft, just give up on the whole Windows-on-Arm idea — the fixation on Apple and the Qualcomm dalliance could end up harming the very partners that stood by your side for 40 years

Microsoft Surface Laptop and Surface Pro devices on a table.

I remember reading in an old-school computer magazine a few decades ago, a quote about the influence of Intel and Microsoft on the PC ecosystem. “If Intel told PC vendors to jump, they would hesitate, if Microsoft told them to jump, they’d say, how high”.

The recent launch of Microsoft’s Copilot Plus scheme illustrates how far reaching the company's sway remains within the industry, nearly 40 years after the launch of Windows. The who’s who of computing stood shoulder to shoulder with Microsoft as 20 models - including Microsoft’s own Surface - made their debut.