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A former Apple executive has some harsh words for Intel, claiming the "PC market is in its twilight" and citing Intel's virtual absence in the smartphone market.

Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive and now a general partner for Allegis Capital, wrote in his "Monday Note" blog that the PC market is in its death throes. His comments come after a rumor Web site claimed that Apple will abandon Intel processors in favor of processors based on the power-frugal ARM chip architecture.

"Now that the PC market is in its twilight, with mobile devices proliferating and stealing growth from the PC, surely Intel has to get into the race," Gassée wrote. While not mentioning Intel's power-efficient Atom processor by name, Gassée had harsh words for Intel's lack of competitiveness in the smartphone world--where its Atom chip is intended to compete.

"Let's consider Intel's complete absence from the mobile scene. Not a single smartphone contains an x86 processor," he wrote.… Read more

Update: According to a new report on DigiTimes.com, Asustek (parent company of the Asus brand) has "experienced drop in consolidated revenues, mainly due to dropping Eee PC shipments," and "only shipped about 350,000 Eee PCs in April."

It's hard to believe that before 2007, a low-cost laptop was one that came in under $1,000. But that was before the Netbook revolution kicked off, inspired by the Intel Classmate and the One Laptop Per Child XO, and spearheaded initially by Asus and its original Eee PC (which had a 7-inch display and ran Linux). From that point on, every PC maker was forced (some more reluctantly than others) to embrace this new subgenre, and Netbooks were everywhere.

Until, like all fads, the Netbook burned out. Part of the reason was clearly Apple's iPad, which became the new go-to entry-level computing device for people who either didn't need or want a full PC, or just wanted a reasonably priced travel device for e-mail and Web surfing. The iPad itself has kicked off a gold rush of sorts, with the same companies that pushed countless me-too Netbooks onto store shelves now doing the same with touch-screen slates (perhaps we'll look back on this a year or two from now as the Tablet Bubble).

But the real reason Netbooks have fallen by the wayside is that they failed to evolve. After the first couple of generations, Netbooks settled into a comfortable niche of a 10.1-inch display, 1GB to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows (first XP, then Windows 7 Starter or Home Premium). You could get this basic combo for as little as $299, but some companies would charge more for upgrades such as nicer designs, rugged bodies, 3G antennas, or occasionally a higher-resolution display. But performance-wise, you'd usually be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a $299 Netbook and a $450 one.

The most recent Netbooks have almost all moved to the latest version of Intel's Atom processor, the dual-core N550, but in both our benchmark tests and anecdotal use, it hasn't been a huge step past the older models with the single-core Atom N450, adding to the feeling that today's Netbooks weren't much of an upgrade over the ones from a year or two ago.

In the meantime, larger laptops have made huge leaps, especially with Intel's second-generation Core i-series platform, which has boosted performance and battery life across the board. And 11-inch ultraportables with AMD's Fusion E-350 CPU have created a new market for laptops that provide relatively good performance and battery life, often for less than $500 (these systems arguably evolved from the handful of larger 11-inch Netbooks we'd seen over the years).

To be sure, many PC makers still have a Netbook or two in their lines, and even offer occasional updates and upgrades, but they're not being pushed like they used to. Sony, for example, has dropped Netbooks entirely from its Vaio line. Netbooks have definitely fallen off a cliff, but the question is, just how far? … Read more

It's National Star Wars Day and we celebrate with someone who loves space, Brian Cooley! Spotify sets its sights on iTunes, but its still only available in Europe. The Department of Justice is taking a deeper look at the AT&T/T-Mobile merger deal, and DO NOT rent a laptop from Aaron's unless you want someone spying on you. Plus, how can you not love the Paint for Cats App!

Amid serious legal squabbling between Apple and Samsung, Intel may have an opportunity to land Apple as a chip customer, according to analysts.

''Based on a number of inputs, we believe Intel is...vying for Apple's foundry business,'' wrote Gus Richard, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., in a research note, according to a report in EE Times.

Foundry refers to contract manufacturing. Samsung is currently the foundry for Apple's A4 and A5 processors, which are used in the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

This may be a golden opportunity for Intel, according to another analyst. "Given the strained relationship between Apple and Samsung over IP (intellectual property) issues, there is a window where Intel can become the foundry of choice for Apple," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw, in a phone interview.

Though Intel is relatively new to the foundry business, it already has one customer on record, Achronix Semiconductor. But it also has at least two more confidential customers, according to a source familiar with Intel's foundry business.

That said, gaining Apple as a customer would move Intel into the contract manufacturing big leagues with the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)--also rumored to be a future Apple foundry. In fact, Intel isn't there yet. "It's not the sort of thing that could happen easily or quickly," said the source. … Read more

Intel is now moving not-so-subtly toward Android as the default operating system for handheld devices, as the chipmaker yields to market realities.

With Android leading Apple's iOS software in smartphone market share according to calculations by Gartner (and other market researchers), the Google operating system has plenty of momentum. That's not the case for Intel's in-house MeeGo operating system--which is not even a blip on the handheld device market-share radar screen--and is only staying in the public's eye because of Intel's stubborn support.

And Windows 7, which is not optimized for tablets, will never be … Read more

Intel has been criticized here and in other venues for being late to the tablet party. But Android's slow start in tablets may mean latecomers aren't necessarily losers.

A stroke of serendipity has arrived in the form of a tepid consumer reception so far for tablets beyond Apple's iPad. Sales of the Motorola Xoom are, to date, anemic, while the sell-through to consumers of Samsung's Android tablet has also been underwhelming.

And Digitimes reported today that tablet suppliers Asus and HTC are delaying Android tablet rollouts.

Meanwhile, RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook--which is more like an appendage to a BlackBerry phone … Read more

No sooner had Intel announced its newest Atom chip for tablets than the company rolled out its next-gen "Cedar Trail" Atom processor due in Netbooks this holiday season. The chipmaker brandished new Netbooks based on the next-generation Atom processor and touted its tablet strategy at a developer conference in China today.

Cedar Trail Netbooks will be "quieter, thinner, lighter than current Netbooks," according to Doug Davis, general manager of the Netbook and tablet group at Intel. Davis was speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, where he showed off a future Cedar Trail Netbook and an Intel Classmate PC that will use the future Atom chip. The event was streamed over the Web.

Davis also mentioned that Intel has shipped 90 million processors into the Netbook segment to date, which means Apple still has to ship tens of million more iPads to even begin to catch up to Netbook numbers. … Read more

The Intel executive who led Intel's so-far-unsuccessful push into smartphones and tablets quit as that business comes under unrelenting competitive pressure from companies like Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia.

Anand Chandrasekher, who had been senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, announced today that he will be leaving Intel to "pursue other interests." Effective immediately, Mike Bell and Dave Whalen, both vice presidents of Intel Architecture Group (IAG), will co-manage the group, which is responsible for building Atom chips that go into smartphones and tablets.

This follows the departure last year of Eric … Read more

Intel is preparing to ship two low-powered Xeon processors for the high-density microserver market, and will deliver similar chips based on its Sandy Bridge and Atom architectures within the next two years.

The additions to the Xeon E3-1200 family, the E3-1260L and E3-1220L, along with the Sandy Bridge and Atom additions, have been designed for microservers, Intel announced at a press event yesterday. A microserver comprises multiple small, one-socket servers sharing the same chassis to provide high-processing density in a relatively small amount of space.

The new Xeons have a thermal design power (TDP) rating of between 20W and 45W … Read more