The successful start of volume production of the 64-bit ARM processor this month signals the start of the mobile/cloud era and end of the WinTel duopoly in end-user computing, writes Wikibon CTO David Floyer. Apple is already introducing 64-bit with its A7 processor in the high volume iPhone S5, iPad Air, and iPad mini. Google, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung are all promising 64-bit ARM-based products.

The new processor eliminates the 4GB memory addressing limitations, allowing these new mobile devices to use real and virtual memory much more efficiently. It will allow faster application loading and execution, smoother rendering, and lower development costs.

High performance desktops and larger clients will continue to sell well in specific market segments, particularly for intense content creation and gaming, but those markets will shrink over time as mobile devices linked to private or public clouds gain increased power and capabilities at much lower cost. But for most users the combination of greater convenience, ease-of-use, lower cost, and functionality will make cloud/mobile devices their preferred platform.

Floyer predicts that both Intel and Microsoft will survive and thrive in this brave new world of mobile end-user computing and outlines the strategies they should adopt. For Intel, whose mobile computing processors have not won the volume sales that will allow them to compete on price in mobile devices, that strategy is to focus on defending its dominance in the server market. For Microsoft it means focusing on core software including Azure, SharePoint, Exchange, and cloud products such as Office365. It needs to unchain its products from Windows and allow them to compete on all end-user platforms. Both companies should treat the PC market as a cash cow, limiting investment in development while keeping prices as high as possible.

Companies should embrace cloud-mobile. IT organizations should migrate away from the traditional development, operational compute, networking, and storage silos toward an integrated mobile-cloud Dev/Ops model, Floyer writes. The business value of a high availability, secure, fully integrated, universal communications service is very high.

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