Qualcomm Cancels Its Small Windows on Arm PC

Qualcomm has announced the cancellation of its Snapdragon Dev Kit, a compact Windows on Arm PC that was originally scheduled for release in June. In a communication sent to customers, the company stated that the mini PC “has not met our usual standards of excellence,” and as a result, all orders will be refunded.

Qualcomm has faced challenges in delivering the mini PC for several months. Initially, it was meant to be launched in June alongside the chips used in the first series of Copilot Plus PCs. Despite indicating that the product did not meet its standards, Qualcomm did not elaborate on the reasons for the prolonged delay before deciding to cancel the hardware prior to its distribution to most customers.

Certain developers, including Jeff Geerling, had already received the Snapdragon Dev Kit before Qualcomm’s cancellation. Geerling conducted a teardown of the device and provided a comprehensive review. His analysis concluded that, although the mini PC’s performance was comparable to Apple’s M3 Pro, the device represented a missed opportunity due to its lack of Linux support and limitations on reselling the product.

Speculation surrounding the cancellation points to issues with an HDMI port. While the dev kit was intended to include this port, Geerling discovered that although all components for an internal DisplayPort to HDMI conversion were present, the actual port was absent. Richard Campbell, the founder of the DEVIntersection series of conferences, theorized in a recent TWiT episode that difficulties with the HDMI port may have led to production delays if it failed FCC compliance testing. Last month, Qualcomm informed customers who had ordered the dev kit that it planned to ship the product with a USB-C to HDMI adapter instead.

The dev kit was designed as a specialized tool to assist developers in adapting their applications to Windows on Arm. Both Microsoft and Qualcomm have been advocating for developers to prepare their applications for laptops powered by Snapdragon X Elite. They have seen some success, with applications like Chrome becoming native to Arm64.

Furthermore, Google is set to introduce its Drive app to Windows on Arm later this year. NordVPN and ExpressVPN launched their apps last month, and the Arc browser is now Arm64 native as well. Although the gradual adoption of Windows on Arm should be noted as a positive development, the issues surrounding the dev kit have cast a shadow over these successes. Qualcomm is planning a Snapdragon summit later this month, where it may provide further insights into its strategy for desktop PCs now that its venture into mini PCs has concluded.

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