It's been a long time since a rock 'n roll

It's been 2 years since I last posted. Much has happened for me professionally and personally that has kept me really busy.

But the real reasons the blog was in hiatus were:

1. Sharikou had become boring and predictable. It wasn't fun razzing with da man any more. In fact, my own last few posts were becoming slightly Sharikouesque in nature - simply attack without much fact.

2. The battle between the two giants had become non-existent. AMD was just looking for ways to stay alive and Intel for ways to grow their stock price.

However, some things have happened that have changed the game:

1. Recently. Intel paid AMD a LOT of money to settle the litigation. And this has given AMD a significant life line.

2. The inevitable collision of the netbook and the smartphone (read as computing performance with communication + portability) has Intel competing with guys like Broadcom to a signficant extent on their turf. This is new ground for Intel and Intel has not always been very good at growing lateral or new businesses.

3. Acer overtook Dell as the #2 PC manufacturer worldwide. They are growing at an incredible pace and obviously going after HP who is much ahead. But...they are doing it with much lower cost products which will challenge the chip industry for margins as they grow.

4. Wimax is starting to mature and become a real service in some markets. We will see if Intel's huge investments here will yield them the goodies.

In a couple of weeks Intel announces results...a good time to pick up the threads.