“For nearly three decades, personal computer makers thrived by building their PCs around two key ingredients: Intel chips and Microsoft Windows,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.
MacDailyNews Take: Garbage.
“It’s an unprecedented success streak in the fast-changing tech market, where new technologies displace old ones in an eye blink,” Goldman reports. “But now, it looks like the “Wintel’ party is finally winding down.”
MacDailyNews Take: Blessedly.
“Hewlett-Packard’s announcement Thursday that it wants out of the PC business is a dramatic confirmation of some grim trends. PC sales have slowed to a crawl, growing just 2% worldwide last quarter and falling 6% in the United States,” Goldman reports. “The bad economy is a factor. But with the growth of Web-based applications, cloud storage, and tablets like the iPad, HP and others aren’t convinced that consumers will ever clamor for PCs again. ‘The tablet effect is real,’ HP CEO Leo Apotheker said Thursday on a conference call with analysts. ‘Consumers are changing how they use PCs.'”
Goldman reports, “Fully integrated hardware and software systems like Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Macintosh are becoming more sought-after in the technology industry. Apple does not break out its segment profits, but it is the eighth most-profitable company on the Fortune 500. That gave Apple — the third-largest and fastest-growing PC maker in the country — grounds to declare the beginning of the ‘post-PC’ era in March.”
“‘I think what we’re seeing — what HP’s move is really about — is the aftermath of the Wintel strategy, in which you give all the profits to Intel and Microsoft,’ said Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group,” Goldman reports. “‘Guess what? That model is driving them all out of business,’ Howe continued. ‘It has made companies like Apple look really smart. Wintel is falling apart.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When we wrote the following a lot of people laughed: As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Who’s laughing now?
Related article:
Apple doesn’t have an iPad strategy, they have a post-PC strategy – April 12, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ellis D.” for the heads up.]