AMD planning another round of cuts

[Siberian]

I think they are in a race to sell the company before they go bankrupt.

 

[Sheep221]

No of course not but even if I did, I'd still be on the right track because...only the paranoid survive.

What you are suffering from though is marketing myopia. You assume that PCs equates x86. They do not. Or do you assume PCs equals Windows? Surely you would agree that it does not. PC stands for personal computer. Is a smartphone a personal computer? I think so. Is a tablet? I think so. Is an ARM based chromebook? I think so. They can do almost everything a Wintel PC can do. Not every Windows app works on them but neither do they work on MACs. At the same time there are some great apps that work on these other devices that don't work on Wintel PCs.

The corporate world, I have doubts on as well. I talk to some senior IT types and what they tell me is its all about ubiquity now - accessing data from any device. Makes sense, simplifies their end.

Sure PCs have more horsepower than smartphones and tablets but as PCs are dumbed down, while the ARM vendors continue to innovate, the gap narrows. Combined with the lighter, more innovative OSes vs the bloated Win8...Wintel is ahead but ARM/Android/Apple are catching up (I'll be interested to see how well the acer $199 chromebook does - I think it'll do ok but the battery life and the acer name are sure drawbacks - still I think this is something Intel and AMD (while they're still around) should embrace - its not like Microsoft asked their opinion on their Xbox initiative...

Things always look rosy for everyone during the technology transition periods. I remember floppy drives being 5.25", then 3.5" came along and at one point PCs had both installed - imagine the growth!!, Teac thought the 5.25" 1.2mb FDD would never go away. It did, as did the 3.5" 1.44mb. The # of humans is finite, the # of hours in a day is finite, if I spend less time with device A, it means I spend more with device B because B does more for me. It also means I'll upgrade A less often and I'll want to spend less on the device, I might ditch A all together.

By the way, I never bought in to the console taking over mainly because the hardware is up to standard only once every x years, the rest of the time its behind. Which is an oxymoron given the application.

Lastly, my anecdotal experience on wintel PC demand right now? Bad except for gaming, mobile or desktop, where the kids are definitely buying. Intel wants ultrabook to get down to $699 or less, maybe they should be working on getting the performance of gaming notebooks up and the prices down (its pathetic that a NV 640M (DDR3, not GDDR5) based notebook sells for $1,000+...

another lastly - guess who is the most innovative PC marketer right now? Google.

Nexus 7, then Nexus 10, then the Samsung $249 Chromebook and finally Nexus 4 all generated a lot of genuine PR, good reviews and sold out status because of the feature set and pricepoint. That's a sad indictment of the "PC" business if you ask me.

You couldn't be more wrong, not everything that actually has a switching electronics inside has to replace computers.
Comparing phones, tablets and other "read only" devices to computers is a bad idea because:

- They lack processing power for everything beyond viewing raw websites and documents.
- They are annoying to use and offer no productivity.
- There is no ergonomics when using them, they are intended to be used outside, while computer is stationary desktop device and is intended to be like that.
- Screen size, lack of connectivity, lack of software and so on.
- No possibility to run any editing, controlling or otherwise oriented creative or enterprise software.
- No ability to play games.
- No ability to control other devices and machines, apart from rare examples intended just for that.
- Low reliability, as they are mobile, they are much more likely to break and gain excessive wear, the operating systems though pretty unified today, are still not really stable. Windows(or less often MAC OS) is stable on virtually anything it can be installed to.
- Accessing data from everywhere is one thing, but creating them at first? Don't need a PC for that again?
- PC is machine designed to process data, while tablets, phones, chromebooks and so on, are designed to view them in small-scale format.

So infact, you did call your mom, you read your email and view the latest songs on youtube, played tetris when had a school break but that's all. You didn't edit photos, you didn't create excel sheet, you didn't contribute to distributed computing, you didn't game, you didn't work on anything. Again, you have to return home and turn on your PC to do that...

 

[phenomkid7]

You couldn't be more wrong,.

THe entire industry believes that the traditional desktop PC market will stagnate in the coming years, and everyone is making a push towards mobile/tablet...

... maybe you should call up the CEOs of these tech firms and tell them what morons they are.

Like it or not, the traditional desktop/workstation (midtower, ATX formfactor, that sits in one place) is a shrinking market.

Even Microsoft recognizes this ... and made Win8 RTM.

The traditional desktop PC is not going to "die". It is just not a growth market. No need to get defensive about this shit, just wait and see how things shake out...why get angry.

Also you heard about things called docks ? Smartphones can do HD now. If there is a standardized dock, with a mouse and keyboard lying on your desk, there is no reason why you cannot use a mobile device in an enterprise environment, or at home where a casual user only browsers internet / watches youtube.

Video encode / compiling binaries and all that shit, does not represent a significant portion of the *consumer* device market

Anyway... Win8 Pro hybrid tablets are set to hit the market next quarter....that pretty much kills your theory about mobile devices and "productivity". Full x86 support, on an Intel i5 on a device that weights less than 2 pounds. kthxbye.

 

[phenomkid7]

posted twice

 

[kache]

THe entire industry believes that the traditional desktop PC market will stagnate in the coming years, and everyone is making a push towards mobile/tablet...

... maybe you should call up the CEOs of these tech firms and tell them what morons they are.

Like it or not, the traditional desktop/workstation (midtower, ATX formfactor, that sits in one place) is a shrinking market.

Even Microsoft recognizes this ... and made Win8 RTM.

The traditional desktop PC is not going to "die". It is just not a growth market. No need to get defensive about this shit, just wait and see how things shake out...why get angry.

Also you heard about things called docks ? Smartphones can do HD now. If there is a standardized dock, with a mouse and keyboard lying on your desk, there is no reason why you cannot use a mobile device in an enterprise environment, or at home where a casual user only browsers internet / watches youtube.

Video encode / compiling binaries and all that shit, does not represent a significant portion of the *consumer* device market

Anyway... Win8 Pro hybrid tablets are set to hit the market next quarter....that pretty much kills your theory about mobile devices and "productivity". Full x86 support, on an Intel i5 on a device that weights less than 2 pounds. kthxbye.

This kinda makes sense, if the data security is enough (you can't afford to lose work data, nor you can afford someone else getting ahold of it) and the docking works properly, because it would allow direct work portability, thus increasing efficiency.