CNET has an interesting story about Intel CEO Paul Otellini's appearance at the company's annual investor meeting. He had some choice words about the success of the PC market--which is now selling over 1 million PCs every single day--and addressed some of the recent silliness over the iPad supposedly "killing" the netbook. Check this out.
"In 2010, for the first time, PCs cross a million a day. A million PCs a day--built, shipped, and sold in the industry. By 2014, that number basically doubles, it approaches 700 million units (annually) as the near-addressable market for our company," he said during an event that was streamed on the Web.
And within five years, Intel expects to be shipping a billion chips per year in all device markets, he said.
Addressing the market for Netbooks--small, inexpensive laptops built around Intel's Atom processor--he said Intel expects good growth ahead. "This market (Netbooks) that we created will grow north of 20 percent year-on-year this year. It's got a 15 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Still no sign of material cannibalization of the notebook market by Netbooks," Otellini said.
"(Netbooks are) in the range of 40 million units (annual) and nicely growing," he said.
Otellini also had a lot to say about tablets. "On the scale of the PC industry, they're relatively insignificant. My personal belief is that tablets, like Netbooks, are additive. They're a new usage model for computing. I don't think they will take market share away from other devices," he said.
The market for computing "in units...will grow 15 to 16 percent over the next four years. The PC is still a growth industry."