2005 finished strong, with worldwide PC shipments hitting new highs, according to preliminary fourth-quarter figures released in January. However, after consecutive years of significant growth for the PC industry, we are conservative about the prospects for 2006. This year marks the beginning of several significant transitions in the PC industry, starting with Intel's move to dual-core processors in notebooks and Apple's switch to the Intel chip architecture ? the industry received early glimpses of both in January. Here are the highlights for this update: