>re: "If they don't run the commercials, they have to pay higher prices for the chips." Actually this is not strictly true, everyone pays the same for the chips.
What happens is that when they run advertising featuring Intel's name and meeting Intel's requirements, Intel pays for a specific percentage of the cost of running THAT PARTICULAR advertisement, up to a limit based on total purchases of qualifying Intel products. (Some of this is presumed based on industry practices, I am not certain of the exact details of Intel's specific program). The definition of "advertising" can become quite broad (seminars, demonstrations, even putting properly labeled product and/or boxes on prominent display in the store).
It's called cooperative advertising, its used by virtually all manufacturers and it has never, as far as I know, been held to be anti-competitive. Compaq themselves probably uses it, e.g. if Best Buy runs a newspaper or TV ad featuring Compaq computers and meeting Compaqs program requirements, Compaq probably offers BB partial payment for the cost of producing and running the ad. |
