Intel on the death, and reincarnation, of the beige box PC

The beige box is heading for the big store room in the sky

The traditional beige box is slowly but surely disappearing into the dustbin of computing history as alternative desktop designs grow in popularity, Intel's Rick Echevarria told v3.co.uk.

The vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group said that a large proportion of desktop users were now migrating to laptops and netbooks. However, there is still demand for the traditional desktop PC, but in new form factors.

“What's happening is that the beige machines are being replaced by mobiles but desktops will continue to have a role,” he said.

“There is still strong demand for PCs in certain areas, healthcare for example. Plenty of businesses want a PC that isn't mobile.”

He said the PC is evolving in four main directions. Enthusiasts, especially gamers, are sticking with the PC because it can be customised more easily for peak performance. Meanwhile, businesses are still buying desktops for high-end uses, such as running large displays.

Elsewhere, the desktop format is being used in all-in-one home PC entertainment systems, which seldom move, and in fixed-function nettop boxes.

During a video interview, Echevarria also discussed research Intel had carried out into optimal refresh cycles. The company commissioned research looking at the costs of PC maintenance, office productivity and hardware values and found that the ideal refresh cycle was around three-and-a-half years.

“The current recessionary environment means we not only have the tech conversation, which we love, but also the finance conversation,” he said.

“What are you going to cost your company if you go on a five-year refresh cycle? You become less efficient.”

He also gave details of a new remote encryption management tool Intel was demonstrating on the vPro platform. This lets IT managers enter encrypted hard drives for jobs like patch management and then re-encrypt the drive automatically.