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Given the PC industry'south overall decline and Microsoft's failure to make headway in the mobile market, you might not expect Redmond to accept much of a presence at Mobile Globe Congress. Reports from the bear witness, notwithstanding, say otherwise — and information technology looks like tablets and ii-in-1 PCs are shaping upwards to be a major battlefield in 2016.

The companies fighting that battle, withal, aren't necessarily the ones we associate with the PC space. Huawei's MateBook (shown above) is winning accolades at the evidence as a svelte alternative to both the iPad Pro and Microsoft's ain Surface. Ars Technica reports that the device matches the iPad Pro'south 8.9mm thickness, with a 640g chassis that's lighter than either system. The Core Thou, slim bezel, excellent screen, and $699 starting price could brand this system a tough competitor for the likes of HP and Dell.

The shifting competitive landscape

It's amazing how much things have changed in but four years. Back in 2012, Intel was showing off its Medfield smartphone platform and Microsoft was talking upward Windows RT. At the time, a war between x86 and ARM across the unabridged spectrum of computing devices seemed imminent, with Intel's Atom slashing its power consumption while the Cortex-A9 and A15 took ARM into the consumer space with so-called "smartbooks" and server companies like Calxeda launched assaults on Intel's turf. The thinking dorsum and so was that Intel would initially stake out the tiptop of the Windows 8 tablet market, with ARM fries holding the lesser using Windows RT.

MateBook2

Huawei's MateBook wants to challenge the iPad Pro and Surface

Precious lilliputian of this actually happened. Pundits believed Windows RT was critical to the future of Microsoft correct upwardly until it actually launched to abysmal sales figures. x86 tablets running Windows went nowhere fast, which collection Intel to increase its investment in the Android ecosystem. The company somewhen shipped tens of millions of Android tablets on x86 hardware, but with footling in the way of co-branding. The dream of a second-generation "Intel Inside" entrada that would button customers towards x86 devices considering they were congenital on Intel hardware never materialized.

ARM-based smartbooks never happened either — though Chromebooks arguably replaced them. And while multiple companies are withal pushing ARM server solutions, we take yet to see much in the way of sustained contest.

Instead of a vast Intel-versus-ARM state of war, we're seeing Chinese smartphone manufacturers step up to compete with traditional OEMs. To date, higher-priced 2-in-1s take been a rare bright spot in an otherwise declining PC market, and companies like HP, Dell, and Asus have jockeyed to offering Surface-similar products of their own. Huawei's archway into this market place could kicking off some other race-to-the-lesser price war that I'g non sure whatever of the OEMs can afford — particularly given that PC sales may still reject further this year.