AMD/Wave and TCPA (My Thoughts)
AMD will surely receive some type of recurring revenue from the deal. AMD wants to be a first mover and one-up Intel, but I'd be surprised if they weren't cut a slice of the revenue too. This goes for metered content and applet hosting fees. Wave has always stated that they're willing to share the pie for the adopting OEMs. I have a hunch that AMD might be partnering with one of the big box makers to offer up a cheap, high-powered PC solution, with the idea that profits can be made after the actual sale.
Imagine if Dell offered a high-end machine (say a 600mHz Athlon, 20GB HD, 128mb RAM, 17" Monitor) for less than $500 with top-notch customer support and service. This is just the tip of the iceberg, imagine an "awards" program that could be offered, whereby each customer purchase earns credits towards the purchase of accessories, peripherals, frequent flyer miles, etc. The sky's the limit.
Suddenly, Dell moves to the AOL model, and relies less on hardware sales (read: low margin) and more on subscribers. Now, Dell is more interested in driving and delivering content instead of delivering faulty parts to their customers. In other words, to paraphrase PS, the customer is no longer a liability after the sale, she's an eyeball.
If one of the major box makers isn't actively pursuing this type of arrangement, I need to start another company pronto. Michael Dell are you listening?
---Slate
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