Asus chairman: the Wintel era is over

[Emil]

Asus chairman Jonney Shih has declared that the so-called Wintel era is over. This means one OS vendor and one CPU vendor will no longer be able to dominate the PC market. The death of Wintel will offer a brand new opportunity for system vendors to thrive again in the IT market, Shih said according to DigiTimes.

For those who don't know, Wintel is a portmanteau of Windows and Intel. It refers to personal computers using Intel x86 compatible processors running Microsoft Windows, and is often used to describe how these two companies have dominated the PC market by making sure their software (Microsoft's operating system) and hardware (Intel's processors) are optimized together.

This shift is of course being attributed to the explosion of the tablet market, but I think it's not that simple. I think it comes down to the consumerization of the mobile PC. Sure, when desktops needed to become portable for businesses, we invented laptops. The death of Wintel all started, however, when consumers started buying more laptops than businesses bought desktops.

At the same time as this was happening, the Internet became much more powerful and accessible. Since compatibility isn't as important to consumers as it is to businesses, the non-compliant alternatives to Wintel started to thrive. Add all the other portable devices other than laptops that you can think of, and you have the whole picture: the PC suddenly became anything electronic that could perform more than one function, and it didn't have come from the Wintel tree.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/44234-asus-chairman-the-wintel-era-is-over.html

 

[Mizzou]

That's right, Intel and Microsoft are going to roll over and play dead instead of making a determined effort to enter the mobile space. While there are certainly more alternatives now than in the past, think it's safe to assume that both companies will continue to maintain substantial market share for the foreseeable future.

 

[mario]

I don't know about Microsoft maintaining a substantial market anywhere but on PCs. I believe the smartphone market share will be divided by 3-4 major players and MS is trying hard to be there with the big boys in mobile, maybe they'll get there maybe they won't but I don't see them gaining anywhere around +90% market share they had/have on the PC side, I don't know if they'll break 20% in the next 2 years but competition is always good for the consumer.

Intel I can't tell, I'm sure they are working on some very good mobile processors but they haven't shown anything that I know of.

 

[Archean]

I agree mario about that 90% remark, in fact, I think there is no chance that any one vendor will ever have 90% of the mobile market share. I think company which will probably suffer is Apple, it has already lost significant ground to Android, and frankly, with some tweaks, some stolen ideas, and fixes etc. (i.e. iOS 5) doesn't seems to be something which will rock the market in a way the original iPhone did. I think the mobile market probably will look like this in few years time:

1. Android (its continuous growth can be attributed to two things, i.e. its being free, and not a closed platform)
2. Apple (may be for some time to come)
3. go to Either RIM or MS

In few years time I think RIM will probably be in more precarious position than Nokia is today. But this is just a calculated guess.

 

[Guest]

I have an ASUS Transformer. I recently loaned it to a friend that had an Ipad2. He loaned me the Ipad2.
I may be in the minority, but so far I don't see either as an alternative to a laptop.
The tablets are display devices and don't lend themselves to things I do.
It will be interesting to see what MS comes up with.
As for smartphones, I don't have one, and don't see the need to get one.
My phone plan is $29.00 per month and it does all I need it to do.
I'm a semi-retired computer consultant, and I guess I look at the devices from a business versus entertainment perspective.
Again, this is just my personal opinion. Time will tell if WINTEL is dead.

 

[Archean]

Guest # 5
I think tablets (and imitations) are well not good enough for most 'power users'. They may have value with regard to entertainment + light web surfing and that is that. Hence, in the desktop + notebook space, I don't think it will go away any time soon.

 

[Guest]

I still need Windows, but most people I know don't, and would probably be just as well - or better- served on an streamlined OS like Android or MeeGo. Same goes for hardware, most users' needs seem to be very modest compared to what they used to be (adjusted for Moore's law).

 

[gwailo247]

It probably would be better to describe it as the beginning of the end, not the end.

But then my brand loyalty is solely tied to performance. All I care about is that my hardware and software allow me to do what I want to do. If Windows or Intel fail to deliver, I'll go elsewhere in a heartbeat. So far they're the best options for me.

The only way that portable electronics will ever overcome desktops is when software/media stalls in its requirements while simultaneously power consumption and processing speed surges ahead, and the time may be now. Video seems to have stalled at 1080p, and streaming problems seem to be more prevalent than processing, and consolitis has led game developers to dumb down games in terms of performance. Looking back at my 25 years of PC gaming, this is probably one of the few times where I'm able to play many top shelf games at full resolution with relatively old hardware.

 

[Guest]

I predict the era of computers is coming to an end this eon.

 

[Gars]

Guest said:
I predict the era of computers is coming to an end this eon.

yeah,
they'll no more called 'computers'

 

[yRaz]

gars said:

Guest said:
I predict the era of computers is coming to an end this eon.

yeah,
they'll no more called 'computers'

I think when he says computers he means PC enthusiasts. For example, no one can deny consoles popularity and all of the developers are dropping the platform. Heck, how many DX11 games are there? the majority of games are DX9, even the newest games. It's really sad, but I think the DX9 will be favored over any new version of DX because of the popularity of consoles.

That's just consoles, imagine how much of an impact smart phones and tablets will have on the PC market. I fear that one day(and we aren't far off) CPU's will have everything built into it. About a year ago smartphones were still considered kind of new and the ARM chips weren't as prevalent as they are today. Now we are putting the qualcoms and snapdragons in everything. The PC enthusiast is a dying bread and so is the hardware + support for them.

summing everything up, there are many more options than buying a PC and we aren't limited to X86 hardware anymore. I do believe it is the end of wintel especially since smartphones and tablets are gaining popularity and functionality fast.

 

[mario]

@Archean yes that might be right but market share is not as important as profitability and that's what Apple has always been about and what their investors care about.

 

[Archean]

+1 mario, probably loosing market share but selling to greater number of customers can keep them in very healthy position.

 

[Guest]

I think we should abandon money and go back to trade. Money is too abstract for the human monkey to use responsibly. We can try again in a couple of million years.

 

[Archean]

Well guest don't worry, several agencies are now 'evaluating' the possibility of $ crashing to ground sometime in (near) medium term; especially since BRICS countries are building foundations to move away from $s; so you may just get your wish. After all, one can over-leverage by only that much before the house of cards start falling.

 

[Guest]

Good point Archean - there are some other grass roots efforts happening too.

One of the (many) serious faults is that physical resources are quite limited but abstract resources (money) are infinite. A primary result is the ecological disaster unfolding in a mere span of a few thousand years - a blip in the time frame of sentient existence on Earth as we know it.

 

[amstech]

Yraz, the PC enthusiast market brought in 8 million dollars or so in the last fiscal year.
I love my consoles but they are kids machines compared to my PC.

And yes many games support DX11, many developers are making a push to utilize all of the superior game technologies PC's have to offer with new games.

BC3 is a great example.

 

[Guest]

"The Wintel era is over" is more like "the Desktop PC era is over"

I see after next 3 years, Motherboard Manufacturers (Asus, MSI, ECS, etc) making phones, tablets, netbooks and notebooks, but no more "Motherborads" and not more "Discrete Graphics Cards" (nVidia and ATI included)

After next 3 years, Intel and AMD will not sell processors for consumer users, only for OEM for server and portable markets.

After next 3 years, the Gaming PC will be complete replaced by Game Consoles.

After next 2 or 3 years, maybe, you can buy a "All in One" computer only in an Apple Store or the Online site of Dell.

Wait 3 years, and you'll see...

 

[herpaderp]

yRaz said:
The PC enthusiast is a dying bread

lolwat

amstech said:
many games support DX11

Out of all the PC games to have come out since late 2009 till now, only 20 or so actually have DX11 support, and many of them had it patched in after release. We are only now getting to the point where developers are making games with DX11 support right from the start.

 

[Guest]

"After next 3 years, the Gaming PC will be complete replaced by Game Consoles."

Funny, according to Steam there are 30 million ACTIVE users:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29
http://store.steampowered.com/news/4502/

Besides mouse+Kb will pwn>console players in the same game.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

Guest said:
"The Wintel era is over" is more like "the Desktop PC era is over"

I see after next 3 years, Motherboard Manufacturers (Asus, MSI, ECS, etc) making phones, tablets, netbooks and notebooks, but no more "Motherborads" and not more "Discrete Graphics Cards" (nVidia and ATI included)

After next 3 years, Intel and AMD will not sell processors for consumer users, only for OEM for server and portable markets.

After next 3 years, the Gaming PC will be complete replaced by Game Consoles.

After next 2 or 3 years, maybe, you can buy a "All in One" computer only in an Apple Store or the Online site of Dell.

Wait 3 years, and you'll see...

Not sure if you know this but the world is bigger then you and your friends. PC's aren't just all of a sudden stop getting better, yes mobile computing will get better and more convenient but so will desktops. This notion that you dont need a desktop PC is just stupid and takes no consideration into long term real world practicality

 

[Guest]

All the cloud computing requires lots and lots of servers. Way more profit and less competition in the server cpu market. Tablets and phones rely on offloading the cpu requirements on servers, in the end it may be more profitable to sell fewer but more expensive server cpus then lots and lots of cheaper mobile cpus with lower profit margins. Also the hot phone this year may not be hot next year causing more fluctuations in the demand from particular semiconductor manufacturers. Just my $0.02

 

[FransB]

I think they personally mean that if Windows 8 comes the OS also will support ARM and is not bonded anymore by x86 (so Intel and AMD).

 

[kvs13156]

I like pads and phones, but nothing beats a badass intel hexacore processor on a win 7 computer when serious work needs to get done!

 

[Guest]

A computer is always a computer, it can't be compared with any other devices. A full powered PC with Intel or AMD CPU and Microsoft OS is always appreciated. You can't do all your jobs with tablets, smart phones and so on. Microsoft still dominating almost 94% of OS market on the whole. So Wintel wins. Finally compatibility matters.


ASUS SUCKS......!!@#$%^&*