[Windows 8 General] Rakeesh_j:
The CPU architecture doesn't really matter so much. What does matter is that the mobile platform is hypercompetitive. Price very much plays a role in such a market, however that isn't the only role, not even close.

Historically, the tech world has shown us that there is generally only room for two major platforms for developers and consumers to target at any given time, as the third one (and the ones after that) remain very distantly behind the first two because it never really catches that consumer confidence. Video game consoles and PC's really drive that home, only in the case of the PC the second place guy is WAY in the dark.

IMO Android will always hold a spot on the mobile platform for the same reason Microsoft always has in the PC space. The reason I think it will do that is because it is doing to apple what microsoft did to apple. Microsoft provided a platform that just any OEM could use. That effectively changed things so that it wasn't just microsoft vs apple, rather it was anybody who could build a PC vs apple.

However, lately, Android drives that even further, and in the case of Windows, microsoft has moved closer in the direction of apple.

In order to make an Android device, the OEM doesn't even need to get approval from Google, hell google doesn't even need to know that they made the device. They can just go right on ahead and make it. Although google has outlined some rules that the OEM's must follow in order to use the Android trademark, there is no approval process, rather if they use the trademark incorrectly they'll probably get sued. Google only does this to prevent the Android platform from being fractured (e.g. you can't call it android unless it does at least x, y, and z and is therefore compatible with all apps.) Further, Google makes the barrier to entry for creating apps very low. The SDK costs nothing, and putting apps up on the market only costs $25 for as many apps as you want to put up, and there is no pre-approval process. Or you can just circumvent google entirely and allow sideloading with your own distribution platform. Up to you entirely, though the Android market provides good marketing for what you pay for it.

This makes it extremely attractive for third parties to want to use and deploy the android platform, because they are free to do many things, including making devices that cost basically nothing (and consequently are very popular on prepaid plans and in third world countries, in addition to the enthusiast market; contrast that to microsoft and apple which tend to be enthusiast only.)

Microsoft has moved in the opposite direction, and in my opinion this is going to create problems for them. Not saying it will prevent them from succeeding (though there's a good chance of it,) but it does create problems nonetheless. First, they've gone away from allowing just anybody to build devices based on their platform, and they now require strict controls as well as an approval process for the device itself. This costs the OEM additional money on top of the cost of the license of the OS itself. This rule applies to both x86 and RT, by the way. Then on top of that, the developers have barriers to entry. Although there is a limited version of the SDK for free, you ultimately have to pay to use the more advanced functions of the OS. There are also per app publication fees to the windows app store (developers for both iOS and Android rarely make any profit at all, given windows phone's smaller market share, this problem is guaranteed to be worse) and sideloading is strictly forbidden.

Another note on sideloading by the way: Sites such as this one, science fairs, engineering conventions, and open source developers, all tend to favor devices that they are free to modify as they see fit. Most Android OEM's* don't lock down the devices and allow you to do whatever you want with them. Microsoft has gone out of their way to make sure this can't happen with future versions of windows. In fact, even so much as dual booting will become a very tedious process with an OEM machine once windows 8 ships.

*Motorola and HTC being the exception, and they both only hold a small market share (12% and 6% respectively) compared to the rest, especially compared to Samsung (26%) who has pledged to not lock anything down, and LG (20%) who has thus far only locked one device down, and it was over a year ago. And given that google bought out motorola, it's probable they'll stop as well.