ok they are going to integrate the proccy right into the PCB saving cost and space. What about the GPU? Going to integrate AMD/Nvidia GPU right into the PCB too? or they think their GPU are topping the current charts. Whatever it is, things doesn't look really good. SoC is future but not so soon.
give it 2 years, manufacturers are now moving towards mass production. They realize that being the fastest doesnt sell and definitely doesnt earn then $$ because of huge R&D. So why not create something which is mass produced that way prices come down, and competition is also happy because less $$ in R&D = keep on making fools of public. The outcome is that the consumer is the loser.
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_leading_PC_vendors ... just take a look at this stat, and most of these vendors supply to businesses and not computers for home use. In other words sales to corporates account for more than about 80% of total sales.
Still about 50% of the market is owned by people who source parts and build their own pc's. So the real question is why the difference?
a. price ( 90% people buy assembled computers because of price )
b. customization ( 10% buy so that they can have what they want )
So the companies say... hey why do we make branded computers so expensive? Just start selling SoC and that way the people assembling PC's are forced to go for standard options. And as a result the prices of the same branded computers come down (which offer some customization) .
A very big advantage of SoC will also be space utilization, because they are going to be built in the boards, you may see some different methods of arrangement . One thing which comes to my mind is a SoC with GPU as sam mentioned.
----------------------------------------- < this layer is the mobo + processor >
| | < connector PCI >
------------------[ ]-------------------- < GPU >
so the conventional method of arranging the GPU perpendicular to the motherboard may change.