> I wonder how this will affect Power's use in consumer oriented products.

Probably not that much, assuming you mean IBM POWER here. Non-trimmed POWER will never be in any consumer product, no matter if with or without SPEs. The rumour article I quoted says that Sony wants to use the PS4's Cell also in notebooks and in TVs. So if this new Cell is going to have a trimmed POWER core and will be in notebooks and TVs then that would mean (some) usage in consumer oriented products. But as you might have noticed, these are no less then three ifs: 1. Will the PS4 really use a Cell? 2. If it'll use a Cell, will its PPE really be derived from POWER? 3. If it's a Cell with a POWER(-derived) PPE, will it really be used in notebooks and TVs?

> Do you think we might see a return to the desktop

No, not in a scale that would generally be understood as a return (to what we had with the POWER4-derived PPC970).

> or use in devices like the PS4?

Yes, I think a new Cell in the PS4 might have a trimmed POWER PPE. But that's really just speculation.