I wish indeed that x86 CPUs were not the future, but I keep seeing otherwise.
I was so hoping Itanium would pick up. OK, it's intended for other workloads but imagine desktop and workstation parts based on it.
I know it wasn't still up to the task of replacing x86, but with enough resources it would get there, it could be on pair even now.
Legacy compatibility always slowed things down, although needed by accumulated stuff from all the years passed.
But as times keep passing, it gets worse.
Although it seems now development seems to be more universal.
But CPUs will always be needed, better for some tasks even. And now there's Xeon Phi, which can even be both. And x86 keeps creeping up...
flat, that's wishful thinking. I hope that is so, but I doubt it. OK, we've seen lately some price drops on the iMac, but was it really? Specs dropped. Unless they do the same with the nMP, which is almost impossible since the base models are already at the minimum - except for the new Haswell 1620 CPU.
On the contrary, prices have been rising - OK, here in Europe to level things up or so they say. There was again a small price raise this week here, but it seems it was only here, don't know why.
Anyhow, they don't seem to be in need to lower prices, and now again with the new iPhones 6S coming up, and hoping to make 90 million units, why would they care about about the DT/WS business?!
Great news regarding CL on El Cap. Things start to get in place I guess.