Qualcomm
has
canceled
its
Snapdragon
Dev
Kit,
the
miniature
Windows
on
Arm
PC
that
was
originally
supposed
to
ship
in
June.
In
an
email
to
customers,
Qualcomm
said
the
mini
PC
“has
not
met
our
usual
standards
of
excellence”
and
orders
will
now
be
refunded.
Qualcomm
has
been
struggling
to
ship
the
mini
PC
for
months
now,
after
originally
planning
to
release
it
in
June
alongside
the
chips
that
powered
the
first
wave
of
Copilot
Plus
PCs.
Beyond
the
mention
of
not
meeting
standards,
Qualcomm
doesn’t
explain
why
it
took
months
to
reach
the
conclusion
of
canceling
the
hardware
before
it
shipped
to
most
people.
Some
developers,
like
Jeff
Geerling,
already
received
their
Snapdragon
Dev
Kit
before
Qualcomm’s
cancelation.
Greeling
even
performed
a
teardown
on
the
hardware
and
fully
reviewed
it,
too.
The
conclusion
of
the
review
was
that
while
this
mini
PC
had
similar
performance
to
Apple’s
M3
Pro,
the
hardware
was
a
missed
opportunity
thanks
to
a
lack
of
Linux
support
and
weird
restrictions
on
being
able
to
resell
the
device.
The
mystery
around
why
Qualcomm
has
canceled
this
device
might
all
come
down
to
an
HDMI
port.
While
the
dev
kit
was
supposed
to
ship
with
an
HDMI
port,
Geerling
found
that
all
the
chips
are
in
place
for
an
internal
DisplayPort
to
HDMI
conversion,
but
the
port
is
missing.
Richard
Campbell,
founder
of
the
DEVIntersection
set
of
conferences,
speculated
on
a
recent
TWiT
episode
that
the
HDMI
port
may
have
caused
production
delays
if
it
failed
FCC
compliance
testing.
Qualcomm
also
emailed
people
who
ordered
the
dev
kit
last
month
to
let
them
know
they
were
planning
to
ship
the
device
with
a
USB-C
to
HDMI
dongle
instead.
The
dev
kit
with
its
troublesome
HDMI
port.Image:
Qualcomm
While
the
dev
kit
is
a
niche
device,
it
was
supposed
to
be
a
key
piece
of
hardware
to
help
developers
port
their
apps
to
Windows
on
Arm.
Both
Microsoft
and
Qualcomm
have
been
pushing
developers
to
get
their
apps
ready
for
Snapdragon
X
Elite-powered
laptops,
and
they’ve
had
some
success
in
getting
apps
like
Chrome
native
to
Arm64.
Google
is
even
bringing
its
Drive
app
to
Windows
on
Arm
later
this
year,
NordVPN
and
ExpressVPN
both
launched
last
month,
and
the
Arc
browser
is
now
Arm64
native.
This
gradual
adoption
of
Windows
on
Arm
should
be
a
success
story,
but
the
dev
kit
fiasco
has
overshadowed
it.
Qualcomm
is
now
holding
a
Snapdragon
summit
later
this
month,
and
it
may
need
to
tease
more
about
its
Snapdragon
plan
for
desktop
PCs
now
that
its
mini
PC
adventure
is
over.
(Originally posted by Tom Warren)
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