PCs or tablets: Which will win in 2012?

Is your organization straddling the fence between desktops and tablets these days? If so, you're in good company. Stalwarts of the tech business are navigating the crossroads of these two computing models, and everyone appears to be hedging their bets, writes Bill Snyder in a post at InfoWorld.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is expected to roll out a PC while Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) announces new chips for mobile devices at the Consumer Electronics Show opening Jan. 10 in Las Vegas. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Snyder notes, is "hedging its hedge" by making Windows 8 able to operate on an ARM-based device, but not enabling it to run Office-like Win32s applications.

"No one is going to score a knockout punch this year," Snyder writes. "Instead what we'll see is a series of skirmishes along the edges: Wintel will make some inroads into the mobile arena via Windows 8 tablets, while some (but not that many) consumers and businesses will decide that they no longer need conventional PCs."

Businesses aren't relinquishing PCs at this point, but they are expected to buy more tablets, namely iPads, this year. As a new computing model gradually emerges, nobody is quite prepared to abandon the old one.

For more:
- see Bill Snyder's post at InfoWorld

Related Articles:
Pros and cons of outfitting the workforce with tablets
Does Windows 8 mark the post-post-PC era?
Despite tablet's cool factor, laptops prevail in the enterprise
How long before the laptop is extinct?