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Analyst sees sharp decline in Intel, Microsoft influence

Microsoft and Intel influence is waning in the age of the iPad. And market researcher iSuppli says their share of the "new computer market" will continue to shrink.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers

Microsoft and Intel dominance will see serious erosion over the next few years in the era of the tablet and smartphone, market researcher IHS iSuppli said.

The Microsoft-Intel "Wintel" alliance will get slammed by the rise of the "new computer market," a category made up of PCs, smartphones, and media tablet segments, Craig Stice, an analyst at iSuppli, said in a research note today.

Waning Wintel influence is a common theme among analysts these days, as PC growth flattens and the popularity of PC proxies, like the iPad, surges.

Microsoft's share of the operating system market for the three product categories combined is expected to slip to 33 percent in 2016, down from 44 percent in 2011, according to iSuppli While Intel's share of microprocessors will fall to 29 percent, down from 41 percent.

"At the same time, the total size of the market will double from 2011 to 2016, almost entirely due to the strong growth of the smartphone and media tablet segments," Stice said in a statement.

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, said Stice.


Lenovo's Intel-powered K800 smartphone. Intel processors have a tiny presence in the smartphone market.
Lenovo's Intel-powered K800 smartphone. Intel processors have a tiny presence in the smartphone market. CNET