Intel’s smartphone problem

 
 

  
  
Intel’s smartphone problem
  
  
Intel still dominates the chip market, but, as this interactive Reuters graphic shows, its earnings are down significantly.  
  
  
The problem for Intel is that it has been slow adapting to huge-yet-still-burgeoning smartphone sales, and traditional computer sales are slowing. Worldwide PC shipments were down 5.2 percent during the first quarter of 2015, and market research firm Gartner sees traditional computer sales shrinking over the next couple of years–though still selling a quarter of a billion units per year.
  
  
 There’s also a legacy issue here. It was Intel co-founder Gordon Moore who came up with the 1965 law predicting that data density, or the amount of processing power per square inch on integrated circuits, should double roughly every 18 months. It has proven remarkably reliable over the past 50 years, but Intel’s latest numbers suggest that prescience on the tech front isn’t always prescience on the business 
  
  
尽管英特尔在芯片市场上占据主导地位，但是，如同路透社的这张交互图表所显示的那样，其利润发生了巨大的下滑。
  
  
英特尔的问题在于，在缓慢适应爆发式增长的智能手机销售市场过程中时，其传统电脑的销售量却在减缓。全球范围内，个人电脑出货量在2015年的第一个季度缩水了5.2个百分点，而市场调研公司加特纳预估英特尔的传统电脑销售量将在未来几年内继续下降——尽管其每年仍然能够售出2.5亿台电脑。

除此之外，还有一些历史遗留问题。英特尔的联合创始人戈登 摩尔在1965年提出的定律（摩尔定律）预测集成电路上的数据密度，或者说每平方英寸处理器能力的量级，大致每18个月翻一倍。在过去的五十年里，这条定律已经被证明是非常可靠的。但是英特尔最近的销售数据却揭示一个道理：在科技上具有前瞻性，并不意味着总是在商业上具有前瞻性。