Can The Semiconductor Industry Escape The Curse Of The PC?
Every so often some industry pundit comes along and announces that the PC is dead — soon to be replaced by Web tablets, terminals, PDAs or any of a host of other lightweight consumer devices. Over the years, companies like Gateway, Dell and Compaq have each announced the impending extinction of the personal computer as we know it. And every year, manufacturers roll out another new generation of PCs, each one more powerful than the last. Putting it mildly, the rumors of the personal computer’s demise seem somewhat exaggerated. The PC isn’t dead. The major systems manufacturers just wish it were. The problem is the ever-shrinking margins of the PC hardware business. Just because desktop processors get consistently faster, that doesn’t mean each new engineering hurdle gets any easier. In fact, producing these continual improvements is extremely difficult, not to mention costly. Meanwhile, as the economy has declined, sales of expensive new PCs are down across the board. Intel is already s
