Chris B

Will Intel's New Processor Be a Game-Changer?

donzelion, you almost stumbled upon the reason Intel will continue to underperform.

Will a faster processor make employees more productive in using spreadsheets, email, and word processors? No.

Will they make the internet suddenly faster? No. The vast majority of consumers will still be using cable and phone lines a decade from now.

Will the new processors speed up boot times? Not if the bloated Windows 7 is installed!

Companies and most consumers might as well keep their old computers and save the money. Gamers and server farms might benefit from the speed and power savings, but most businesses and consumers will have to ask what these computers do that a 5 or even a 7 year old system won't do.

What people don't realize about PC's is that they have become appliances, just like dishwashers. Intel's processors have reached market maturity. They are the new Maytag or Whirlpool, not the triple-digit growth stock they were in the 90's.

For an increase in demand for computers/appliances to materialize, existing PC's would have to become obsolete. For that to happen, the following would have to occur:

1) Fiber optic lines installed at most households make existing processors the bottleneck for video, etc.
2) PC based artificial intelligence applications or some other killer app leads the next tech-driven increase in productivity growth for business.
3) Windows continues to bloat and hog more resources, and consumers continue to just buy new computers rather than migrating to Apple or Linux.
4) Hardware failure rates increase dramatically, resulting in more new replacements being bought.