The Free Lunch is Over: Intel, AMD, and Apple in 2005.

“Every year around this time, various manufacturers and companies line up to talk about how great their Next Big Thing will be. Coincidentally, this is also when we reviewers and editors line up to tell you how great the next year will be. After you rinse, wash, and repeat this cycle for a couple of years, its easy to become a little jaded, especially when companies (hypothetically) announce products in 2003 that end up shipping in 2007 with half the intended feature set. Personally, I?m slow to jump on the ?OMGWOW? bandwagon, but with that said:

2005 is going to be a different kind of year. Beyond the glitz of over-caffeinated marketing, real paradigm shifts do occur; the one we?ve already begun is bigger than most people have realized. Bit by bit, the computer market is moving from a performance-based system of evaluation to one that considers a wider variety of factors. The reason for the change is simple: performance isn?t scaling like it used to.”