Most people think their current machines are fast enough and don't see any greate benefits from upgrading. While Intel touts some future processor hungry applications such as voice recognition and video editing as reasons people will want to upgrade I don't see it. Its going to take some other application that everyone wants that needs a lot of processor power in order to get people to upgrade. Intel expects half of its sales growth to be in emerging markets. So its clear they don't have that much faith in new application catergories at growth generations. Meanwhile, ARM is experiencing rapid sales growth in embedded processors. That's where the action is shifting to. This NY TImes article requires free registration to access.

That new attitude is shown clearly in a recent national opinion survey by Odyssey Ventures, a San Francisco market research firm. Among households with PC's, the intention to buy a new computer in the next six months has fallen to just 11 percent from 21 percent in early 2000 and the lowest level in five years. And half of PC owners now have home computers that are at least two years old — more than at any time since 1994, when Odyssey began keeping track. The pace of upgrades is crucial because, according to the Gartner market research organization, they account for 80 to 85 percent of new computer sales.

Here's an idea for a sales generator: Software that does voice and face and body recognition for home security. Put a box in the basement or closet that is the house server computer. Connect a bunch of cameras to it. It could dial out to a security agency to report a video feed if it saw something suspicious. Or it could call your cell phone and let you know what it sees. Maybe a small display device on the cell phone to show you what it saw would let you decide whether its fears were justified. If you weren't sure you could tell it to send you a series of pictures.