Computer-makers Intel and Microsoft’s influences are fast sliding down at the expense of the iPad, according to IHS iSuppli, a global leader in market intelligence.
Microsoft and Intel’s share of the “new computer market” in addition continue to shrink, the market researcher noted.
The two’s dominance will witness severe erosion over the next few year in this age of tablet and smartphone. Analysts at IHS see the Microsoft-Intel, or Wintel cartel, getting a shocker from the rise of the “new market,” a category made up of media tablet segments, smartphones and desktop PCs.
The decline of Wintel’s influence has today become a common subject matter among analysts as the growth of PC flattens in preference to the surge in the popularity of the PC proxies such as the iPad.
Microsoft’s share of the operating system market could decline in three product categories in to 33 percent in 2016, from 44 percent in 2011, noted iSuppli. The market researcher further noted that Intel’s share on the other hand would slip to 29 percent, down from 41 percent.
The total size of the market could also double from 2011 to 2016 given the strong growth of the smartphone and the media tablet segments.
Craig Stice, an analyst at, IHS iSuppli said, said in a research note today that Intel’s response “has been the ultrabook, a PC with the attributes of both a laptop and tablet, while Microsoft’s answer has been the Windows 8 operating system, which spans the PC, tablet, and smartphone markets.”
“Wintel now is playing in a new computer market that is a composite of the PC, smartphone and media tablet segments,” Stice said.
Stice added that while this may be a non-traditional way of looking at the PC market, tradition has gone out the window.
“The smartphone influenced the tablet, the tablet influenced the PC, the PC wants to become more like a tablet and the tablet more like a PC. It’s a vicious circle in which both Intel and Microsoft must take part, but they are losing control of the game and how it’s played.
“The Wintel camp is not accustomed to following, but with both companies being excluded of the two fastest-growing markets, they are in catch-up mode,” he stated.
