Intel Readies For Post-PC Era With 12,000 Job Layoffs

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sent out an e-mail yesterday to employees announced a major restructuring for the post-PC era would be starting. Intel plans on cutting up to 11% of its workforce, or 12,000 jobs, through mid-2017, to “speed its transition to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” It was also noted that the “transition” will be handled with the “utmost dignity and respect” although on its earnings call it’s looking to exit certain product lines.

The ongoing declines in the PC market and some hints during the earnings call have something thinking that many of the job cuts will impact the Client Computing Group (PC/mobile CPUs) the most. Right now rising PC CPU prices have helped offset soft PC demand, but CPU volume is down 4% for the quarter and 2% year over year. Analyst firm IDC Research estimates PC sales were down more more than this though. IDC said earlier this month that worldwide PC Shipments totaled 60.6 million units in the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16), a year-on-year decline of 11.5%. PC shipments to just the United States fell 5.8% to 13.6 million units in 1Q16. This number is far higher than the number reported by Intel, so that likely means that Intel gained more market share from it’s main PC CPU rival, AMD. Hopefully AMD Zen-based processors can challenge Intel and get some people interested in updating their old systems!

Intel appears to be focusing on gaming PCs and 2-in-1 laptops right now, so the niche PC gaming market that Legit Reviews has always covered appears to be fairly safe. Intel has been diversifying in recent years, so this news isn’t really that shocking. Intel going into the Internet of Things market has been well talked about in the post-PC dominated landscape. The PC market in 2015 was a bloodbath though with a year-on-year decline of PC shipments being roughly 10.6%. Many hoped that Microsoft Windows 10 would help the PC market, but it really hasn’t. Intel said that the Internet of Things business unit was up 22% year-over-year, so