ARM as a primary architecture

[Przemek Klosowski]

On 03/22/2012 02:38 PM, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Thu, 2012-03-22 at 09:11 -0400, Przemek Klosowski wrote:
>> On 03/22/2012 02:31 AM, Kevin Kofler wrote:
>>> Tom Lane wrote:
>>>> That opinion is flat out ridiculous.  Or maybe it makes sense if you
>>>> think consumer desktops are the be-all and end-all; but they are not.
>>>
>>> Consumer desktops and notebooks. The things we normally call "computers".
>>> Those have always been and should remain our primary target.
>>>
>> Check out the numbers from The Economist:
>> http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/20111008_SRM111.gif
>>
>> The number of desktops has been flat for last 7 years. The growth in the
>> smartphone/tablet area dwarfs 'what we normally call computers'.
>
> Note that all the numbers where smartphones/tablets 'dwarf what we
> normally call computers' are, in fact, projections. In the numbers which
> actually exist, tablets/smartphones have only just caught up with
> computers.

Fair enough, but the trends are well established, and the data are for 
_shipments_ so the actual deployed numbers are compounded (flat 
shipments translate to steady growth, linear or faster shipment growth 
means quadratic or maybe even exponential growth).

Of course predictions are tricky, especially when they concern the 
future :) but I believe those here will bear out. I see more future 
needs, and more need for improvement, in the mobile areas. Looking close 
to home, I note that we bought more mobile gear than traditional 
computers in last two years.