Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by CydeWeys on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @07:16PM (#11531232)

Intel screwed up and didn't become a major player in the mobile market. They could have, because they are still the world's best chip maker, but they didn't. The mobile market is experiencing the most growth and also the shortest product lifetimes. I still get a new phone every 1-2 years because the upgrades are worth it, but my laptop needs upgrades less often, and my desktop less often than that. Mobile phone processors today are where desktop processors were a decade and a half ago in terms of growth potential.

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by ansible on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @04:09AM (#11532934)

Intel has tried, and failed, and tried again in the mobile segment.

They sold off their ARM processors to Marvell. They've made various forays into wireless, though WiMAX didn't work out so well for them.

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by majewsky on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @03:54AM (#11532895)

> I still get a new phone every 1-2 years because the upgrades are worth it

Really? About the only reason why I'm getting a new phone every so often is when the old one stops being updated. (My Nexus 4 lasted 3 years, and it would have done another year.)

Planned obsolescence, if you want.

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by CydeWeys on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @11:55AM (#11535332)

The phone market is still rapidly evolving. For instance, I have a Nexus 5X right now. The fingerprint scanner on it alone is worth it. It was an afterthought to me when I got the phone, but now it's the single most important feature on the phone to me. The camera is also better than anything phone camera I've had before.

Also, I play some games on my phone, and having better hardware helps a lot with that.

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by sireat on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @02:01PM (#11536366)

What is so useful about a fingerprint scanner?

I could see how infrared sensor like in that new Caterpillar phone could come in useful especially if you are in a building trade, but fingerprint scanner?

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by CydeWeys on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @03:43PM (#11537165)

You know that it's used for unlocking the phone, right? It's nothing like the use case you're describing.

You have to get a phone with one and use it for a week or so until its use becomes routine to really understand how big of a game changer it is. I subconsciously unlock my phone now every time I pick it up. It's amazing. Every day it saves me probably 60 seconds in total typing in stupid PINs, and those savings add up real quickly.

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Re:Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight by revelation on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @06:11AM (#11533318)

I'm still using my Nexus 4, that thing has pretty much already set the "good enough" bar we've come to reference for why PC sales are tanking. The only problem is a lack of security updates, but we can't blame the hardware for that.

Incidentally I had a HTC Desire HD before and that became unusable on newer versions, as is the Nexus 7 now. These two clearly didn't have the good enough hardware specs.

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