Intel can count on continued YoY declining PC sales with these kinds of YoY product improvements
Digging their own grave, they are.
There is the odd rumour here and there that says they (Intel) have been having increasingly bad technical problems, especially with the fabs, as the scales have become smaller and smaller.
Not enough rumors for anything definitive, but enough to stick in the back of my mind.
Another rumor (but probably based on facts, if Intels full product line are examined) is that these Socket 2011++ ('-E' = Extreme) parts are really rejected Xeon chips.
E.g. We have 6 cores in the existing 3960X, but would have 8(+) cores, on die, or if we went with top end Xeons.
So if they are rejected Xeons, and they are having difficulties with the later chips, then it is harder for them to spare "good" chips for the 'Extreme' market.
Hence the slightly lower turbo clock, and relatively lacklustre clock speeds, compared with the previous chips.
So there could be reasons behind this information leak (or it is FAKE ?).
I can't remember who said it (it might of been you, IDC), but the finFet process, may not be fully debugged/sort out yet, especially with the major diversion of resources to the small non-desktop devices markets.
(I twisted the words round, the original information said that Sandy Bridge was the 'LAST' battle tank strength, bullet proof design to come from Intel, by inference it implies the finFet and/or something about 22nm is troubled)