There was a time when soundcards made your sound, bad soundcard -> bad ROM samples -> bad midifiles. (before mp3 we were listening midi files and mod'ish files) These days, one needs a D/A connector, and some people may need an A/D connector, perhaps some people want a real digital output, but that's it then. The days a soundcard was like a consumer keyboard without keys, with the same technological status, have gone. As long as onboard solutions keep improving, the urge to have a separate soundcard decreases. This is the future of about any cheap/consumer soundcard. There may be a niche left for the more serious music/sound people, they may go for -say- a Terratec. But how long will this niche continue to rely on special soundcards when onboard solutions will eventually become as good?
As with every development: new developments will suck-up others. Supermarkets suck up the local grocery, email sucks up snailmail, wiki/internet sucks up traditional encyclopedia(-books), p2p sucks up traditional record industry models, digital cams suck up traditional cams (including printing costs of your film).
And so, all-in-one motherboards will eventually suck-up manufacturers of 'add-ons for bare mainboards'. At least for sound I think, dunno about videocards tho.
As with every development: new developments will suck-up others. Supermarkets suck up the local grocery, email sucks up snailmail, wiki/internet sucks up traditional encyclopedia(-books), p2p sucks up traditional record industry models, digital cams suck up traditional cams (including printing costs of your film).
And so, all-in-one motherboards will eventually suck-up manufacturers of 'add-ons for bare mainboards'. At least for sound I think, dunno about videocards tho.