It is quickly becoming clear that the end of the PC-era is approaching as consumers rapidly adopt mobile alternatives, such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Intel, which powered many PCs, could be left in the dust, warns a former Apple executive. “Now that the PC market is in its twilight, with mobile devices proliferating and stealing growth from the PC, surely Intel has got to get into the race,” writes Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive now with venture-capital firm Allegis Capital.
Gassée, who headed Apple Macintosh development in the 1980s under then-CEO John Sculley, writing in his blog “Monday Note”, slammed the chip giant for its “complete absence from the mobile scene. Not a single smartphone contains an x86 processor.”
The former Apple executive is not alone in his opinion. Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard suggested Intel’s declining future could be revived if its mobile Atom processor core was adopted by Apple. “In our view, Intel would pick up Apple’s volume, driving revenue growth at good (not great) gross margin,” he told investors.
Although such a move could save Intel from a questionable future, it may be more of a rear-guard action. Tablet makers appear happy with the zippier ARM chipset, plus Apple reportedly may include the chips in its line of MacBooks soon.
[CNET]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
22 responses to “Former Apple Exec: PC is ‘In Its Twilight’”
“Its twilight,” not “it’s.” I’m sick of people not knowing the difference between the two.
I know, like its so sad to not know the difference! Duh?
This is not an article. It is a random opinion.
Thanks for the catch. We know the difference; but just like anyone else, sometimes we make mistakes.
What’s the first thing you do with an iPhone or iPad? Activate it with a computer containing x86.
What do you do regularly with an iPhone or iPad? Sync it with a computer containing x86.
How do you update an iPhone or iPad’s operating system? Sync it with a computer containing x86.
How do you back up all those photos, videos and music? Sync it with a computer containing x86.
All of these can be solved, but Apple wants to sell macs too.
Interesting article. I’m pretty sure there will always be a traditional PC market, even though the table/mobile is obviously on a roll right now.
That said, the picture used for the article would make an awesome wallpaper! :)
Not really, I do all of that in my MacBook Pro.
Which contains an x86…
So where are we supposed to create all the stuff that we put on non PCs? The iPad? (giggling) yeah right, let’s everyone think a second on how awesomely easy it is to create in-depth quality content on the ipad or any other tablet.
It is bad that the smartphone doesn’t contain an x86 processor
While the mobile market is exploding right now, I struggle to imagine a world where desktop computing power will no longer be needed. Sure the iPad2 has the same computing power of a super computer from the mid-80’s, but we’ve obviously always found a need for every incremental increase in computational power. We are always dreaming up new and amazing things to do with our computing devices. Are you saying we won’t any more?
Mobile is great… and its computing advancements are beyond phenomenal but by its very nature mobile will never be on par with the more stationary platforms. Only when our devices become fully cloud dependent for data and functional processing will the PC be truly at risk. That’s not right around the corner by any stretch of the imagination. And for the record, saying a personal server isn’t a personal computer is just silly semantics. The infrastructure, public confidence, and economics required to truly kill off the PC is probably… well… hell… at least a decade out if everything goes perfectly. And when does anything ever go perfectly?
Asimov and others have been writing about this for over two generations now. I suspect, like flying cars, we will still be fantasizing about a truly post PC world a generation or two from now. Until then, I foresee homes with central personal servers with several mobile and quasi-mobile devices accessing them. The PC will live on…bigger and badder from a capability standpoint and in a closet!