Microsoft slyly claims 93% of Home windows Arm time is on native apps

Home windows machines operating on Arm are right here! Really, they’ve been right here for years. However don’t name it a comeback, as a result of these laptops based mostly on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors—which Microsoft pushed so, so arduous final 12 months—aren’t promoting so nice. However in keeping with Microsoft, these worries about app compatibility are just about over.

That’s the gist of a brand new Home windows Developer Weblog publish, which says that “native Arm variations out there for apps representing 90% of complete consumer minutes.” Which appears nice! However that’s a extremely selective assertion, which led me to observe right into a disclosure web page linked on the publish. You possibly can in all probability work out by yourself that testing “consumer minutes” isn’t the identical as saying that the majority particular person apps are operating Arm-native variations, as a substitute of utilizing emulation for x86 and x64-based apps.

That alone appears okay… however there’s one other little bit of flim-flammery that Microsoft isn’t fessing as much as. The disclosure web page spells it out, saying that the information is predicated on a snapshot of knowledge from February 2025:

Primarily based on snapshot of aggregated, non-gaming app utilization information as of February 2025 for iGPU-based laptops and 2-in-1 units operating Home windows 10 and Home windows 11 in america, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia, Germany, and Japan, with MSRP $800+.

Whoa whoa whoa, buddy! Not solely is there a somewhat arbitrary choice of international locations there, the ground for MSRP on units appears very unusual. However it’s the “non-gaming app utilization” that actually sticks in my craw. Gaming is, somewhat infamously, the Achilles heel of those Arm-based Home windows units. Which isn’t actually an issue from my perspective since I sport on different units, and I nonetheless purchased an Arm-based laptop computer (at nicely beneath $800) for its gentle weight and battery life. And I prefer it rather a lot!

However merely brushing apart gaming for this declare is mighty disingenuous. PCWorld nonetheless assessments for gaming benchmarks on Qualcomm-based laptops as a result of it’s info that folks need. I nonetheless run Hearthstone on my laptop computer after I use it as a result of it doesn’t want a ton of energy, and I’m positive loads of folks do the identical with comparable video games. Microsoft ignoring that point as a result of it’s inconvenient actually rubs me the improper means.

The remainder of Microsoft’s promo publish (noticed by Home windows Central) raises some good factors in favor of Home windows Arm machines, together with a lot of industrial and industrial instruments and more and more needed VPN assist. However gaming is sort of solely disregarded, regardless of Microsoft itself pushing arduous to combine its Xbox and Home windows platforms proper now.

It could be pithy of me to finish this publish with the outdated quote about “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Effectively anyway, bye.