Dog,
excuse me if I'm Rude for jumping in here, but you stated:
I agree that Dell is only a portion of their manufacturing load. CPQ is a much larger fraction. At one point CPQ took nearly 30% of Intel's output. Although that is no longer the case they are still Intel's largest customer.
According to the last IDC numbers I saw, CPQ was still selling more units than DELL, though DELL had increased sales sharply. I think that a fair percentage of CPQ's units are equipped with AMD and Cyrix chips, while all of DELL's are still INTC. I would merely like to make two points:
1. CPQ may NOT be INTC's largest customer any longer; if it is, that situation may be subject to change within the next couple of quarters. (Unfortunately, I don't have the current data to be more explicit. Perhaps someone else does. Then we could estimate what percentage of CPQs units were sold using Cyrix, AMD, or Alpha chips) So I think that DELL should now be buying in very similar quantities; IMO, that would imply similar price concessions.
2. Although INTC may prefer to work with concrete long-term forecasts, and be willing to make price concessions to those companies which are willing to make them, IMO it must also appreciate customers who have demonstrated absolute brand loyalty, such as DELL.
Just my $0.02.
Thanx, 3.
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