Intel to stop making motherboards
After Intel completes the manufacture of its Haswell motherboard, the PC giant will bow out of the motherboard business. Hey, it's been a good run.
Building motherboards is expensive, other companies are making the boards to a higher standard than before, and desktop PC sales are continually weakening. Indeed, even Apple hasn't been able to defeat the overall market trend.
Is this the end of desktop PCs?
Nope*. Beige boxes will remain on shelves (if not in dorm rooms) for at least a while yet. Intel may be backing out of the motherboard scene, but the chip giant will still be manufacturing desktop-PC processors.
The difference will be that its motherboards will be supplied by third-party manufacturers: ASUS, Gigabyte, and others will still be in the motherboard business.
According to AnandTech, Intel won't be laying off the staff currently tasked with motherboard production: they'll be redeployed to similar jobs, including the design and building of form-factor reference designs (FFRDs), a sort of "this-is-how-we-want-it" for third-party board builds. After all, Intel can't tout a chipset if its mounted on a cruddy board.
All-in-one desktops carrying the torch
Would a desktop PC even fit in your apartment? Exactly. That's why all-in-one devices such as the iMac have been selling so well. However, all-in-ones use laptop components behind a desktop-sized screen. So, while users are still buying non-portable machines, those machines aren't using the same parts as those required by traditional desktop PCs.
(* Come on, though, can you see the writing on the wall?)
