John, below is the most plausible explanation of what happened I've seen,
TP - no, this was something different. Because of processor shortages, vendors were ordering through multiple suppliers. As supplies started to come through, they cancelled the redundant orders. In the case of Europe, they even cancelled the primary orders in some cases.
Here is my explanation: Six months ago, Intel shafts tier two and channel partners by redirecting Coppermine parts to DELL and other tier one OEMS. This was well covered by the Register.
March 10, 2000:
Dealers and system builders, faced with orders for PCs, found themselves in dire straits because of a lack of processors for their customers. Result? Loss of money. And now second tier vendors, particularly in Europe, are beginning to complain vociferously at their treatment at the hands of Intel, which is now unable to guarantee shipment of processors apart from flavours that their customers don't particularly want. Result? Loss of money again. Further, all these sets of people are now beginning to relay worrying information that while they can't source Intel processors, the Big Five - in particular Dell, IBM, Fujitsu Siemens, Compaq and HP - appear to be having no problems whatever getting supplies from the chip giant. One European system vendor, responding to a story we published yesterday complaining about new shortages of microprocessors, has hit out at Intel for undermining sales and told The Register this morning: "All of this goes against their [Intel's] 'we want to support the little guys because it's good for us' line they spin every time we raise such concerns." He said that the contender, AMD, is "really showing these guys what competition is. The way AMD does business is so much better than Intel you would not believe. Friendly, responsive sales and technical staff that can get things done - not puppets on a centralised European based string that repeat the Intel line at every point."
theregister.co.uk
As a result, these customers were forced to use "inferior" parts from third parties. But the arrogant brass at Intel assumed that these customers would come running back when summoned. It didn't happen.
As a result, Intel had an unrealistic forecast as they showed both the primary and redundant orders as demand.
Intel long ago forgot what the meaning of the word "demand" is. Intel's management has begun believing their own propaganda.
George Orwell "Politics and the English Language," 1946. (butched by an AMDroid, 2000)
resort.com
When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases -- (EDIT) Demand is good, yields are good, ramp is good, makes the internet faster, AMD is an imitator, haven't lost market share (/EDIT) -- one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them. And this is not altogether fanciful. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of what he is saying, as one is when one utters the responses in church. And this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate favorable to political conformity. |
