There are big costs involved in setting up infrastructure and boards to test LGA, uPGA, PGA etc type socketed builds. There are also test program changes between socketed and non socketed models. This means completely different bring up teams for both types. This means more manpower expenses, time co-ordination. If they see LGA,uPGA as a very small market in the coming years, abandoning it is an obvious business choice.

Sales are not going to drop if the enthusiast species ceases to exist. That's just sensationalism. The overclocker/extreme benchers will still buy highest end hardware even if its non socketed to go about their benching. Realistically how often do people upgrade? 2-3 years? Intel changes or forces the buyer to change mobos anyway so this is really not going to change anything on that front.

But this does force you to make a purchase choice on a combo rather than independent CPU and motherboard choices at time of purchase. Intel knows the market well, tech savvy people who read websites like this are not on their minds or their major revenue generators. You have to wake up to the market reality that we are just not that important.

They have understood how the vast majority of the people will think for months to buy a car but would buy a very costly smartphone in a heartbeat as if its some daily use cosmetic. Its now fashionable to buy and change phones like its some sort of use and throw item. Trade in programs by many telcos are a reflection of that. Use that logic and they can force the buyer to make a quick choice now Combo 1, Combo 2 or Combo 3 etc no more mix-matches now. It maybe hard for people like us to imagine it but this means lesser complex choices to make, its a simple matter of combos. We on the other hand like lots of permutations in these choices, that's just us not the average joe.

This move, should it happen, will make buyer choice simpler and serve Intel's refined engineering options moving forwards. Many companies will go down this route.

The market will dictate it not the egos of a few enthusiasts.

Do you want your PC to become a complete throwaway item? Do you want to have to upgrade your motherboard to upgrade your CPU? That is what Intel wants. Intel wants you to have a piece of crap Xbox or Playstation. And you are going to like it too.

Another thing to keep in mind is that CPUs have reached a plateau. They are not progressing at any where near the rate they did for the last 2 decades. At 3 GHz, today's average CPU is plenty powerful enough for 99%. So, think forward, not backward.

If CPUs are not advancing rapidly, and they are good enough for the majority of buyers for the life of the device, then what is the use of a socketed CPU? You don't upgrade the CPU on your DVD player, right? If the DVD player stops working, you throw it out and get another one. Same will be true of future computers. They'll be the size of a Mac Mini, cost $150 and all your documents will be in the cloud. Stops working? Who cares, throw it out and get another one.

The only interesting question is what happens to the 1%. In addition to the enthusiasts, that 1% also contains software developers, architects, content creators, etc., that need above-commodity hardware to do their jobs, which are essential. So how do vendors justify the costs of meeting the needs of that tiny population? We need someone to do it, but there won't be much money in it.

Broadwell will still have LGA1150 variants:
http://www.techpowerup.co...on-Variants-Detailed.html

After that, no one really knows besides Intel. Maybe they'll still allow for upgradable chips but relegate that to $225 i5s and above.