The issue here is that these are two incompatible instruction sets. This means that Microsoft and their partners will have to develop two different versions of each app if they want to cover both worlds. For the x86 flavor this will be pretty easy as you are not forced into any real constraints (except for a slight modified driver model and security profile). Both of these are easy to get around with modifications to existing products. For the ARM version of Windows 8 things are going to be a little more complicated. Microsoft will need to work very hard to get developers interested in their Metro only style of computing on these devices (as of right now, only Microsoft can develop applications that can evoke the “desktop” on Windows 8 RT.

Some of the things they have done is push money into the hands of developers to offset the costs of reinventing their products. If this sounds like bribery or like a desperate move then you might want to take a quick glance over at the gaming world. Any game that you play where you see an AMD, Intel, nVidia or other hardware logo popping up during the launch of the game is simply a visual representation of the companies that dumped money into the development of the game. nVidia’s The Way It’s Meant To Be Played program is a huge expenditure every year, but also nets them a return in better performance on their GPUs and nVidia related features are often used over their competitors.

That Microsoft would take this route is not surprising. What has surprised us a little is that Microsoft has decided to throw money at Barnes and Nobel for the use of their Nook e-reader software on both Windows 8 and Windows RT Metro UI. Considering that Amazon’s Kindle is already on the CPP release it is interesting to see them push the issue with another provider. We would have thought they would wait to see if others were interested and then dictated terms. However, if the information that we have is correct Microsoft approached Barnes and Nobel and offered them the money.

The $300 million investment from Microsoft does have a condition. The Nook business unit is being spun off on its own and will no longer be a part of the Barnes and Nobel business. This should help Nook (which until furture notice has the boring name of NewCo) push into more markets and also has given them a huge shot in the arm for R&D. As we mentioned Microsoft will now get a version of the Nook software written for both flavors of Windows 8 which is a good thing as the PC/tablet version of Kindle it not all that great with its single page interface and limited options for formatting.

We would not be surprised to find out that the next generations of e-readers from NewCo will move away from Android and instead use a customized version of Windows mobile or even Windows RT. Things just got every interesting in the ebook market.
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