I work in the workstation division of one of the companies listed in the article and the market for workstations is not going anywhere for a long time.
It's not that workstations died, it's that they look different and solve a different problem. Anyone can build a computer with off the shelf parts that has the absolute maximum specs that any vendor can produce. Anytime a new workstation makes the news (see Apple's latest workstation), the "PC Master race" gang is quick to point out that they can build the same system without the Apple/HP/Dell/Lenovo tax. What they somehow always forget about is that, if I'm an ITDM and I need 100 or even 1000 systems and they need to be configured, validated and ready to deploy from day one, custom built computers aren't feasible in any sense of the word. The value add from workstation companies is a mix of scale, availability, validity and uniformity.
It's not that workstations died, it's that they look different and solve a different problem. Anyone can build a computer with off the shelf parts that has the absolute maximum specs that any vendor can produce. Anytime a new workstation makes the news (see Apple's latest workstation), the "PC Master race" gang is quick to point out that they can build the same system without the Apple/HP/Dell/Lenovo tax. What they somehow always forget about is that, if I'm an ITDM and I need 100 or even 1000 systems and they need to be configured, validated and ready to deploy from day one, custom built computers aren't feasible in any sense of the word. The value add from workstation companies is a mix of scale, availability, validity and uniformity.