Win8 is not a savior!

In October, market research firm IHS iSuppli estimated that global PC sales will shrink by 1.2% in 2012: from 352.8 million units in 2011 to 348.7 million units this year. Not surprisingly, the first decline in global PC sales in the past 11 years will soon become a reality.

In 2012, the Wintel Alliance (Microsoft+Intel), which dominated the PC industry for more than 20 years, led PC makers to fight back, but ultimately did not resist the wave of smartphones and tablets.

Reviewing the development of the PC market this year, the leading brothers such as Intel and Microsoft have no domineering, Intel-dominated ultrabook has not become the mainstream of the market, and Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 8, has not been promoted. The PC market is recovering. In the face of more and more obvious mobile Internet trends, 2013 will be destined to become a critical point of an important turning point in the PC industry chain. Companies that do not have a mobile strategy may have a harder living environment.

Intel: Focus on the mobile world

As an Intel that has been leading the development of the PC industry, 2012 is not a very smooth year. Even though Intel's ultrabook has won the favor of PC manufacturers, the high price has not won market support. Less than a million units of shipments are far from Intel's target of 40% of the consumer market.

In another important mobile chip market, Intel officially announced its participation in the competition. Through cooperation with Lenovo, Motorola and other manufacturers to launch mobile phones equipped with Intel mobile chips, Intel took the first step back to the mobile chip market, but power consumption, industry chain support and other issues are still a problem that plagues the chip giant. At the same time, the capital market has also put the crown of the world's largest chip makers on the market.

No one will despise this chip maker with capital, technology, branding, manufacturing processes, etc., but CEO Otellini unexpectedly announced that he would retire early, or let the outside world know more about the future of the company. A doubt and speculation. Who will lead this "elephant" to continue, will become a focus of attention in 2013.

AMD: Continuous layoffs Lost hopes

Since serving as AMD CEO in August 2011, Rory Read has been busy leading the chip maker to turn losses, but it seems that there is always no direction. In 2012, AMD followed Lorede's three strategies & mdash; & mdash; cloud computing, low-power and emerging markets, but the performance has not improved. The layoffs seem to set the most important strategy for AMD this year, round and round.

AMD had high hopes for China, the world's largest PC market, but since the second quarter of 2012, China's performance has not met expectations. In December, Deng Yuan, the president of AMD Greater China, resigned.

However, the most dangerous thing for AMD is that in the tide of mobile internet, the company has been unable to get a mobile strategy. In October 2012, AMD finally announced that it will launch the tablet processor Z-60, but this time it is far behind the old rival Intel. In the mobile field, Intel is still difficult to turn around, and AMD's prospects are even less optimistic.

Microsoft: Win8 is not a savior

In 2012, Microsoft's product lines have been greatly updated, and the release of Windows 8 is to make the entire PC industry look forward to the autumn. At the end of October, Windows 8 was finally released, and 40 million licenses were sold in the first month of listing. Although this score exceeded the performance of Windows 7 in the same period, it did not bring significant growth to the entire PC industry.

Microsoft made the most daring change in Windows 8, and "touch" as an important development direction, but in fact this has not been recognized by consumers. The chaotic operating habits make Windows 8 have the potential to be the next Vista.

Many consumers already own a PC and are satisfied with existing products. In a weak macroeconomic situation, consumers are more likely to choose lower-priced mobile devices. This may be an opportunity for Microsoft Windows Phone 8, but to win a bigger market, Microsoft still needs partners.

HP: The road to rejuvenation is far away.

The huge losses have reached tens of billions of dollars, and the stock price has fallen to a 10-year low. In 2012, HP is still looking for a break in the chaos created in 2011. Whitman, who succeeded Apotheker as CEO, reorganized the PC business and print business, but she also admitted that HP is currently only in the early stages of recovery.

There is no doubt that HP has missed the opportunity of mobile computing, but the transition to the software business seems to be a difficult road, Whitman can not play more cards. Some investors have once again called for the splitting of HP's business, while others believe that they retain all departments for synergy. HP's 2012 is very confusing, and the signs of recovery are still not obvious.

Lenovo Group: Winning the Battle of Traditional PCs

In 2012, Lenovo Group became the world's largest PC maker. With the advantages established in the Chinese market, Lenovo has continued to expand into emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia, and its global market share has reached new highs. Lenovo won the battle of the traditional PC, but how to break through the PC and continue to lead in the PC+ era has become an urgent task.

In the mobile space, Lenovo’s mobile phone market share has climbed to the second place in the Chinese market, but it is still at a loss. Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Lenovo Group, proposed that the mobile phone business should turn losses in the next two quarters, but this is no small challenge.

Dell: PC business starts to lose money

Dell, which is transforming its solution provider, has been reluctant to talk about PC business. Through the acquisition, Dell is constantly enriching its solutions. In the most recent quarter, Dell's PC consumer business has begun to suffer losses. But Dell executives said recently that the company will not give up the PC business because it has become part of its solution.

In the mobile space, Dell has launched the tablet and smartphone business, but recently the company announced that it will withdraw from the smartphone market. The mobile market is a highly competitive market, and Dell has already announced its abandonment, but there will be some latecomers.

Acer: The mobile business has no improvement.

In 2012, Acer continued to exercise restraint in the marketing of the London Olympics in order to turn losses. Fortunately, the company achieved a small profit in the past two quarters. In the past year, Acer's executives seem to have been complaining about Microsoft, saying that Microsoft Surface hurts feelings. However, if you anticipate the performance of Surface today, Acer Chairman Wang Zhentang may regret it, because he really valued Microsoft at the beginning.

In 2012, Acer also tried to move to the mobile space, but the cooperation with Alibaba Cloud was stopped by Google at the last minute. Acer's president of Greater China, Lin Xianlang, once said that Acer will invest its main resources in the notebook field, but will not withdraw from the smartphone market in the future. The abyss of sticking to the PC market does not seem to dare to gamble too much.

The decline of the PC industry has become an indisputable fact. In this process, some companies are seeking breakthroughs, some companies are seeking transformation, and some companies are sticking to the original market. But in 2012, the PC field has already smelled the atmosphere of change, and there may be some surprising changes in 2013.