Dive Brief:
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Faced with sluggish PC sales, Intel Corp. is revamping its flagship line of computer chips. Intel announced the sixth generation of its Core processor family, based on a design dubbed Skylake, will boost performance and reduce power consumption of PCs.
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PCs had a bit of a rebound in 2014, but this year's sales are slowing again. According to IDC, unit shipments decreased in the second quarter by about 12%, compared with the previous year. Some analysts point to customers waiting for Windows 10 and Skylake as the reason for the decline.
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Other Skylake features could reduce the number of wires computer users need and replace passwords with facial-recognition technology.
Dive Insight:
Intel hopes its efforts will help revive PC sales. The company said it has data that shows people want to "refresh" their notebooks.
"How Skylake does will determine the glide path of the PC industry," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
Intel said mainstream laptops with Skylake chips are 10% faster on standard productivity applications compared with the most recent systems, and at 20% lower power consumption.
The downside is Skylake utilizes a new motherboard socket and memory, which means organizations would have to purchase practically all the parts of a new system before they could use it.
