Quad Core Processors on Phones , Useful or Overkill ?

 

The recent release of the Tegra 3 powered HTC One X led me to think whether we needed Quad Core processors or were they just an added spec to create a marketing hype ?

They're used on PCs , why not my phone ?
Now Quad Core processors on PCs are perfectly justified because developers code apps in a way where applications can make use of the multiple cores or 'threads' on your processors , majorly I believe because there is a fairly large number of people using quad core processors on their PCs but taking a look at android there are currently only two devices running the Tegra 3 namely the One X and the  Asus Transformer Prime , so if I as a developer were to make an app for the android platform , I wouldn't really bother optimizing my app for use on quad core devices because it would be a lot of work for such a niche customer base .

More cores does not equal more power .
At the surface of it , it might appear as if "multiple cores are like multiple processors , so more cores should mean more power , right ?" well not really , think about it , if you ran 'Dangerous Dave' on your PC it would run the same or at best slightly better than it did on your PC in '95 right ? So until the software end is optimized to be run on multiple cores , if it's not it's kind of useless , your OS however is optimized to run on quad cores so most first party apps should work really fluidly up-to the full potential of your processor .

Well They Can't be all Useless , can they ?
No , not at all , quad core processors are awesome and really great if used with optimized software , at the same time there are some really innovative uses , for example 'Ubuntu for Android' which utilizes your phones processor to run your PC dock / Lap Dock . I think in this transient tech world in a while quad cores would be standard on all phones and we'd be calling octa core processors 'overkills'.

Is the PC coming Close to an End ?

Over the last year tablets came and completely destroyed the netbook . No one needed a netbook anymore , because now tablets were faster , thinner , lighter and most importantly cheaper than all netbooks. This trend depicts just how important mobility has become even for less advanced users as well ,if we look at it this way most the things we can do on a PC or a laptop especially web browsing , can be done on a tablet , you can check mail , make documents and even make movies. However there are still some things that restrict you to keeping your computer , for example you cant do programming on a tablet , you can’t copy things from HDDs & long typing can be tedious and most of all not all software are available on tablets . Although these things seem to be too important to us now , its just a matter of time before Tablets might just surpass even your PC , and who knows you might go to school everyday with a tablet in your hand instead of carrying all those heavy books .