The End of an Era: Intel's Desktop Motherboard Business to Ramp Down Over Next 3 Years
Today Intel made a sobering, but not entirely unexpected announcement: over the next 3 years Intel will be ramping down its own desktop motherboard business. Intel will continue to supply desktop chipsets for use by 3rd party motherboard manufacturers like ASUS, ASRock and Gigabyte, but after 2013 it will no longer produce and sell its own desktop mITX/mATX/ATX designs in the channel. We will see Haswell motherboards from the group, but that will be the last official hurrah. Intel will stop developing desktop motherboards once the Haswell launch is completed. All Intel boards, including upcoming Haswell motherboards, will carry a full warranty and will be supported by Intel during that period.
Fonte: anandtech
Ora aqui está uma "bomba" de noticia, com a Intel a anunciar que o Haswell será a ultima plataforma com linhas próprias de placas-mãe. A partir daí apenas vai vender chipsets para os outros fabricantes, ainda que vai manter a divisão de NUC's e reference designs para notebooks/ultrabooks e afins.
A questão será devido à estagnação do mercado tradicional de desktops, preferindo focar naquilo que está a emergir mais em força? (SFF, ultrabooks, tablets e smartphones)?
Acho uma perda importante, já que as motherboards Intel sempre foram reconhecidas pela estabilidade/qualidade