Re: In the end Dell will buy AMD and say goodbye to Intel - It may just happen.
I'm sure that was posted with tongue planted firmly in cheek (where the heck does that expression come from, anyway?)
Dell is smarting a bit from being slapped down by Intel, but they'll get over it. So far, at least, Dell hasn't been allowed access to the only decent chipset for Itanic, so they've effectively been shut out out of a market they were hoping to get a piece of (however small that market may end up being).
So, they'll say a few nice things about AMD, just to make it clear to Intel that they're pissed off, but nothing will come of it.
Dell has worked hard to market itself as synonomous with Intel. Recently, I've heard horror stories about Dell service. It may indeed be that it has deteriorated substantially, and it could be that Intel is afraid of being tarred with a Dell brush.
The other thing that could be going on, is that Intel may be getting tired of subsidizing Dell's inventory costs. HP and Compaq used to give Intel big advance orders, letting Intel have some lead time allowing for capacity adjustments in what is a long lead time industry.
Dell is like the flyer who walks up to the ticket counter at the last minute, while HPQ book their flights in advance.
Yet, Dell has always gotten the best pricing.
My guess is that HPQ is going to more of a just-in-time model, and that AMD and Intel were both hurt by the ending of big, quarterly orders from those two companies last month. If Intel is now having to maintain inventory for HPQ as well as Dell, it may be finding that it can no longer subsidize Dell's costs with profits made off HP and Compaq, and Intel has had to reduce Dell's pricing advantage. |
