<< In this industry, being single sourced is almost never a right decision. >>
It sure seemed to be the right decision last year when the k6-3 came out and gateway adopted and dell didn't. In fact up until the athlon, I'd say it's been the right decision. Do you really think they'd have been better off with AMD as a supplier when hte k6,k6-2, and k6-3 were around?
<< More and more P4 looks like an underweight. It may have the MHz crown late this year or early next but it looks like AMD is no danger of losing performance crown any time in the near future. However, with right marketing and right chipsets that could be sufficient for Intel to reclaim the high-end. But, we are talking about Q2/Q3 2001 for that to unfold. >>
I, apparantly, don't have nearly as much faith in preproduction leaked benchmarks as you do. If it comes out and it doesn't hold the performance crown then I'll definitely agree that Dell is making a bad move, but if it regains the performance crown they'll be rewarded for being the only intel faithful.
<< This industry is too dynamic to have permanent allegiances. Dell-Intel bond is strong but will break if there is enough pressure on it. Dell will be fuming mad if his high end systems are 2 or 3 speed grades behind competitors for Christmas. That can create some serious damage to the "performance" positioning of Dell. And, lower ASPs could mean there is no 30% growth for Dell this year - investors are not going to like that. >>
Of course, Dell (and any other company) will always consider their options, but I thought we were talking about christmas this year. That decision has most likely been made. Dell is going to stick with what they have, and see how it plays out. If P4 is really delayed then it looks like they chose wrong already, but if the P4 regains the performance crown I fully expect it to be a permenant decision. |
