There are voices that claim that one of the biggest reasons for this ongoing decline in PC shipments has got a lot to do with Intel. The chip giant found itself in an absolutely commanding position a few years back in its fight with direct rival AMD.
Since then innovations in the CPU domain have slowed down, as have the performance gains of each new generation of chips. Lack of competition from AMD means that Intel is comfortable with speed increases in the range of 10 percent each year in core processing performance.
This slowdown had to have an effect on the PC hardware market — and it has.
Usually speaking, Intel’s generation of CPUs rarely stay in production beyond a couple of year. By the time the third generation processors start hitting the market, the first usually goes out of production. But it is looking increasingly likely that Ivy Bridge processors might become an exception.
In a normal situation, Ivy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 chips would start being phased out in 2014. Then again, this is anything but a normal situation.
According to this report, not only are these chips in good demand, devices powered by Ivy Bridge processors will last the better part of next year, occupying store shelves with Haswell and Broadwell based computers and notebooks.
Now while this peculiar situation has begun to impact the company’s 2014 roadmap, the good thing is that they will probably not delay the arrival of Broadwell products in any significant way.
But at least the consumers will have plenty of choices next year.
