Intel and Microsoft developers gather as rivals turn up heat in crucial mobile market

Premier developer events in the US are critical to Microsoft's war with Apple and Google, and Intel's battle with ARM

Hardware giant Intel and software giant Microsoft will see their premier developer events kick off this week, the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, and Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, Los Angeles.

Computing will be reporting from Anaheim where Microsoft is expected to unveil the latest version of Windows 8, its new operating system targeting desktop, laptop and tablet devices.

At IDF, Intel is expected to unveil new processors for its Ultrabook technology, seeking to compete with ARM in the smaller form factor mobile device market.

Both US vendors face different aspects of the same challenge, how to excel in both hardware and software likely to run tomorrow's personal compute devices, and effectively compete with Apple and Google in this device market.

Microsoft's BUILD conference

Microsoft's main competitors are Android and iOS, but with the release date of Windows 8 now expected to be late 2012 or even early 2013, both Apple and Google will have had a two- or even three-year head start in developing their operating systems for the next generation of personal computing devices.

Regular posts on Microsoft's MSDN blog ‘Building Windows 8' have provided some insight into the operating system's likely features, and the devices it will support.

Microsoft demonstrated its ARM-based Windows 8 tablets at the Computex event in Taipei earlier in May, much to Intel's consternation: Intel is in a fierce battle with ARM-based manufacturers nVidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments in the tablet processor market place.

The latest blog authored by Microsoft president of the Windows and Windows Live Division Steven Sinofsky details the use of Microsoft's virtualisation technology Hyper-V in Windows 8.

Other blog posts have outlined Windows 8's superior file management, USB 3.0 support, and new user interface, which was previewed at Microsoft's D9 conference earlier in June 2011.

Microsoft corporate VP for Windows Experience Julie Larson-Green said in her blog: "There will be fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, with a customisable, scalable full-screen view, as well as live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps."

Intel's Developer Forum (IDF)

Intel is expected to announce chips focused on its Ultrabook technology as it strives for a 40 per cent share of the personal mobile device market by the end of 2012.

Ultrabooks are expected to be quick booting mobile devices with fast resume times, long battery lives (greater than five hours), but with processing power equivalent to desktops and much larger laptops.

Intel has demonstrated Ultrabooks running Android, open source Linux-based mobile OS MeeGo, and Windows.