Apple's event dominated the second day of IDF, with many attendees and press talking about the merits and drawbacks of the iconic smartphone rather than news from Intel. The company's jovial software chief, Renee James, joked about being the "opening act" for Apple in her speech soon before the iPhone event started.

To some analysts and attendees, the clash between events this year was indicative of the industry shift from PCs, which is dominated by Intel, to mobile devices such as smartphones, where Intel is still trying to make its presence felt. Sales of PCs are fading as users turn to smartphones and tablets as alternatives.

Attendance at IDF this year was up slightly to 4,100 compared to 4,000 last year, according to an Intel spokeswoman, with those at the forum hearing about the new Haswell chip, the future of ultrabooks, and other emerging server, storage and networking technologies. Some found the conference useful as it offered sales leads and a chance to network.

Intel will remain relevant, especially with Microsoft's Windows 8 OS coming up, but this year it's at a crossroads with the market shifting and PC sales declining, said David Kanter, who runs the technology consulting firm Real World Technologies.

"This IDF was unique because you have an opportunity to contrast next door the iPhone 5 launch. In some ways that embodies the shift in the industry," Kanter said. "We have these new classes of devices emerging and there is some financial tension there."