Will the desktop PC remain viable?

The past few years have seem a rather remarkable transformation of the personal computer industry.  The once-venerable desktop PC has faced increasing challenges in viability, first from laptop PCs and then netbooks.  Starting last year, however, even netbooks had a new challenger, with tablet shipments overtaking netbook shipments for the first time in Q2 2011.  Since the introduction of the Apple iPad and competing Android tablets, the tablet market has grown at an astonishingly fast rate, up by 75% this year alone.  The sales of traditional Windows PCs, however, have been lackluster.  Part of this can be attributed to the imminent release of Windows 8; PC sales typically drop before the release of a new version of Windows.  The end result, however, is that PC sales could possibly be headed for the worst second half ever.

To PC manufacturers, this trend is clearly not a desirable one.  While Apple is able to make a 30% profit margin on iPads, other manufactures are not able to command such high prices.  Reports are that Google might even by losing money on the sale of the Nexus 7 tablet.  Consequently, many companies are looking to revitalize the sinking PC market and bring back the greater profit margins of before.

Enter a new desktop PC being developed by Intel.  Coming in at just over four inches square, it's considerably smaller than even the Mac Mini, which is often used as the "gold standard" of small desktop PCs.  Compared to nettops (basically a netbook converted into a desktop), it's considerably smaller, and, it will deliver a considerably better user experience.  With a Core i3, support for 16GB of RAM, and coming standard with a solid state hard drive, Intel's new $400 micro-PC has a lot to recommend itself.  Will it be enough to turn around a sinking industry?  That remains to be seen, but it certainly has a chance.