Intel made a huge mistake 10 years ago. Now 12,000 workers are paying the price

[ioni]

The trends are clear. The younger you are, the more your primary device is not a computer:

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That's a pretty useless graph. What's the most important device for writing papers, coding, creating digital art, analyzing data, etc? Computers are used for more than just browsing the internet.

 

[poofyhairguy]

That's a pretty useless graph.

I don't think so, the main reason consumers buy computers is to get on the internet one way or another.

What's the most important device for writing papers, coding, creating digital art, analyzing data, etc? Computers are used for more than just browsing the internet.

I think you are WAY overstating the productivity use case for PCs. Quite frankly most people AREN'T coding or making digital art or analyzing databases. And that isn't a recent trend, that is the way it was before there were any mobile phones:

As you can see, even back in 2003 most people used their work computer for email and internet, something a smartphone is great at. Another large chunk is calendar management, another thing a smartphone is great at. What is down that at the bottom? Coding.

Another thing to consider is that the limitations of mobile devices for productivity aren't stopping people from using them that way. The largest growth in app use is productivity apps:

And I believe it, a lot of stuff like digital art is moving to the iPad.

All the trends point to a single obvious conclusion- your beloved Wintel PC is a dinosaur trying to survive after the meteor hit. Soon ONLY people who have to do tasks like coding or database management will even need a computer.

 

[Rakehellion]

That's a pretty useless graph. What's the most important device for writing papers, coding, creating digital art, analyzing data, etc? Computers are used for more than just browsing the internet.

Tablets can write papers. And most jobs out there aren't content creation.

 

[TwiceOver]

"Post PC" is defined by the fact that most internet connected devices today aren't PCs, which is a first in the history of the internet:

PCs aren't dead, they just don't matter as much.

"Wintel" wonder how much bias was used in that graph. I'm sure if they went by Operating System they would have used the term "Micro$oft".

 

[thesmokingman]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2470664


This thread had more lulz.

 

[poofyhairguy]

"Wintel" wonder how much bias was used in that graph. I'm sure if they went by Operating System they would have used the term "Micro$oft".

Uh, Wintel has been the name for the Windows Intel hegemony for over a decade now.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Browsing and email are easier to use on a desktop. If i had todo background research on a tablet or a smartphone, i would jump of a bridge. That a smartphone can do it, does not mean it is the most efficient way. Mouse and keyboard will always triumpf touchscreen. Unless you use an application that dumbs it down and limits your freedom of use.

 

[TwiceOver]

Uh, Wintel has been the name for the Windows Intel hegemony for over a decade now.

Then why aren't the other companies listed with their processor counterparts? Apple is 100% Intel. Even if you wanted to say that "Well at one time they used PPC", sure and Microsoft at one time and still uses AMD.

 

[Genx87]

Uh, Wintel has been the name for the Windows Intel hegemony for over a decade now.

Closer to 3 decades

 

[Genx87]

Browsing and email are easier to use on a desktop. If i had todo background research on a tablet or a smartphone, i would jump of a bridge. That a smartphone can do it, does not mean it is the most efficient way. Mouse and keyboard will always triumpf touchscreen. Unless you use an application that dumbs it down and limits your freedom of use.

Expect dock stations for phones that provide KB + Mouse and dual screens.

 

[rh71]

isn't this pretty much status quo for IBM? They always seem to be on hiring/firing binges.

Yup it's all based on performance since they have to answer to shareholders. Meanwhile, they are still profiting... who cares about that right? Layoffs mean outsourcing which means money saving to make up for numbers.

 

[luv2liv]

Expect dock stations for phones that provide KB + Mouse and dual screens.

i think they tried this already with the Moto Atrix and that failed. seems people refuse to combine mobile and desktop.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Then why aren't the other companies listed with their processor counterparts? Apple is 100% Intel. Even if you wanted to say that "Well at one time they used PPC", sure and Microsoft at one time and still uses AMD.

Wintel was a term that was invented back in the 1990s I am pretty sure. It way predates x86 Macs.

Plus it isn't really talking about just Microsoft products or just Intel products, but products that are both.

 

[Fritzo]

isn't this pretty much status quo for IBM? They always seem to be on hiring/firing binges.

IBM is an odd company. They keep changing what they do every few years. Whatever they do is awesome at first, then it seems to get thrown by the way-side.

OS/2
Accounting
Super Computers
Data collection... just to name a few. I'm not even sure what they do anymore.

 

[BoberFett]

Any criticism of their choices has to be compared against what the other options would have led to. Becoming an ARM producer would have reduced Intel from being an industry leader to a contract manufacturer. There's more to computing than local processors. ALl those IoT devices are connecting to a server, and those servers aren't running ARM processors.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Expect dock stations for phones that provide KB + Mouse and dual screens.

I am not saying it is impossible but it will be a while before android + arm can emulate win32 software fast enough. If it ever happens. The desktop pc also advances and becomes more powerfull. No way a phone with its limited power envelope will be able to match that. And there are still patents. There is a whole ecosystem on the pc.

 

[Imp]

Yeah. The need to upgrade PCs as often as you used to has fallen off. And in multi-person households, you no longer need several computers - likely a single computer supplemented with phones and tablets is sufficient for many.

My CPU and mobo are from December 2009. The only reason I'd upgrade/change them is if they died or the CPU fan died -- don't want to deal with applying thermal paste. Laptop is from late 2010, no plans to upgrade. Good for me, bad for them.

Looks like no news on where those 12k workers will be cut. Was wondering about that. Didn't know they had a global workforce of about 100k employees though.

 

[quikah]

I am not saying it is impossible but it will be a while before android + arm can emulate win32 software fast enough. If it ever happens. The desktop pc also advances and becomes more powerfull. No way a phone with its limited power envelope will be able to match that. And there are still patents. There is a whole ecosystem on the pc.

You could do it right now with Windows 10 Continuum, just need Intel to step up. Maybe Apollo Lake can do it?

 

[Rakehellion]

Then why aren't the other companies listed with their processor counterparts? Apple is 100% Intel. Even if you wanted to say that "Well at one time they used PPC", sure and Microsoft at one time and still uses AMD.

Because it's a platform, silly. Does Windows run on something other than Intel?

 

[Brainonska511]

My CPU and mobo are from December 2009. The only reason I'd upgrade/change them is if they died or the CPU fan died -- don't want to deal with applying thermal paste. Laptop is from late 2010, no plans to upgrade. Good for me, bad for them.

Yeah. I just upgraded my whole system (complete rebuild), but the board and CPU were from early 2012, the GPU and half the RAM, and one of my hard drives was from mid-2010. Thermal paste wasn't an issue for me though. I just do pea-dot and squish with the heatsink.

 

[destrekor]

i think they tried this already with the Moto Atrix and that failed. seems people refuse to combine mobile and desktop.

To be fair, that was a piss poor implementation. Not so much the software or hardware in of itself, but rather, the combination, and performance was crude and slow.

Microsoft has the right idea today, and I think they have a damn good shot at really driving home that advantage once they get their priorities in line. They are kind of putting Windows Phone on the backburner for now, not killing it but not really investing significant developer time on improving it. But they have that phone+dock idea in the works and with the Universal Windows Platform, could make it one hell of a thing. Considering that mobile phones today blow phones like the Atrix out of the water is a big point, but it's also the overall implementation.

Android isn't far behind either, and I firmly believe the reports that Google is working on merging Android and ChromeOS. They have the desktop metaphor in a very alpha state already within the Android N preview, so I think the prediction in this thread that the docked phone setup is going to take off, is rather astute. I could even see myself using such a thing from time to time, but for my usage, it would hardly replace a desktop. But serve as a quick means to get work done that needs a keyboard and mouse but I don't need everything else? Absolutely.

I think long-term, we are also not far away from portable dumb tablets, which use WiDi or a newer wireless display tech to connect to a phone in our pockets. I'd use that too, for sure, and I don't even have a tablet right now. Never really got into tablets, I love the idea but from a practicality standpoint, there are more cons than pros in my eyes. Great for what they can offer, but not much for how I use computing. But give me a bigger screen extension of my phone? Yes please.

 

[Imp]

Yeah. I just upgraded my whole system (complete rebuild), but the board and CPU were from early 2012, the GPU and half the RAM, and one of my hard drives was from mid-2010. Thermal paste wasn't an issue for me though. I just do pea-dot and squish with the heatsink.

I've spent hours reading about it and know the drill from what to buy, how much it costs, how to clean old paste off, and various application methods (e.g. rice sized drop, smearing). I just don't want to deal with it.

 

[Ns1]

i think they tried this already with the Moto Atrix and that failed. seems people refuse to combine mobile and desktop.

That was a terrible implementation.


Win10 has a good implementation; it needs to iterate a few more times though to get it to where it needs to go.


Besides, lots of you have a very US centric view of the world. I'm here in Mumbai and for many of the poorer peeps, a mobile is their only "PC"

 

[StinkyPinky]

The trends are clear. The younger you are, the more your primary device is not a computer:

The business market will stick with Intel for a long time because of legacy software, but that isn't a plan for company growth.

Interesting. As a 36 year old I'm hanging onto my desktop for dear life. :'(Guess I'm greatly in the minority though. I just like sitting in a real comfy chair reading the news/playing games etc. Who wants to be hunched over staring at a small screen?

Getting old....

 

[Brainonska511]

Interesting. As a 36 year old I'm hanging onto my desktop for dear life. :'(Guess I'm greatly in he minority though. I just like sitting in a real comfy chair reading the news/playing games etc. Who wants to be hunched over staring at a small screen?

Getting old....

That's my thought on computers. Tablets and phones are great on the go, but for static locations, nothing beats a desktop with a good monitor.