It seems to me that Microsoft is in a perfect position to promulgate such a standard - they don't care if the hardware is commoditized (in fact they would welcome it). It also appears that "will run Windows 8" should be a sufficient carrot to convince manufacturers to build to the spec.
As you say, Google is in a similar position, so perhaps a Microsoft/Google jointly supported standard makes a certain amount of sense, as odd as that sounds...
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It seems to me that Microsoft is in a perfect position to promulgate such a standard - they don't care if the hardware is commoditized (in fact they would welcome it). It also appears that "will run Windows 8" should be a sufficient carrot to convince manufacturers to build to the spec.
As you say, Google is in a similar position, so perhaps a Microsoft/Google jointly supported standard makes a certain amount of sense, as odd as that sounds...