"Intel Inside" campaign shackles OEMs

D-Fly writes "MSNBC is running an article, quoting a lot of anonymous PC manufacturing executives, about how Intel uses its "Intel Inside" branding campaign to gouge PC manufacturers. Apparently everyone's favorite IC monopolist adds about 6 percent to the price it charges for chips, then gives the money back to companies for advertising purposes. If they screw up--ie the Intel logo is too small, they use a single non-Intel processor in the machine, Intel keeps the money Saw it on Ars "

Comments

Sellouts: VA Research, RedHat, BeOS, MetaCreations

[Eric Green]

First: VA Research doesn't sell Alpha because the demand for Alpha (or lack thereof) doesn't justify them spending resources on it. VA Research is no longer the little guy on the block with some guy puttering about in the back room. They sell thousands of identical systems, all of which are now being outsourced to a 3rd party manufacturing firm. (Nothing new there -- for example, the Commodore 64 was not built by Commodore, it was built by a Taiwanese outsourcing firm).

Secondly, Red Hat was just reflecting their sales data, not trying to insult Alpha on Compaq. Basically, the reason for running Alpha has decreased now that you can get 500Mhz PIII chips. A 500Mhz PIII chip comes within 15% of Alpha performance, while costing 25% less.

All that nonwithstanding, LHS still sells Alpha Linux systems for those few who do demand it. If we ever get into a situation where we must streamline our product line, though, the Alpha systems will be the first to go -- we just don't sell of them for them to matter much.

I agree with your assessment of Intel's commitment to Linux, BTW. Intel is out for #1 -- Intel. But that's true of all the large companies now coming into the Linux business. You think Dell cares about Linux? Heck no! All they care about is whether there's enough demand to put a few engineering dollars into creating a Linux line. Linux could be a toaster as far as they're concerned -- just another widget to sell.

-- Eric

Sellouts: VA Research, RedHat, BeOS, MetaCreations

[Sleepy]

Gee, somehow these Deals With The [other] Devil don't surprise me.

Prior to investments, didn't VA research sell Alpha boxes?

Does this have ANYTHING to do with RedHat's insulting comments about Linux on Alpha (regarding Compaq's promotion of Linux/Alpha)?

I WONDER what's written in for software "partners" like BeOS? Do they lose marketing money if they update non-Intel software like the PPC version?

Note that Intel and MetaCreations partnered to form the "internet's Open 3D format" called MetaStream. Feh! Like 75% of MetaCreation's customers are Mac users, and the deal left MacOS without a browser plug-in for this "open" format (still no full disclosure of code either).

My view is: Intel is committed to Linux like Microsoft was committed to Java... commitment being measured in exnergy spent to co-opt the Movement.

In the absence of an open-standard CPU, we need to encourage competition. AMD exists only because they managed to reverse-engineer Intel designs, AND survive many lawsuits. It will be much harder to clone Merced. x86 is a Dead End regarding technology and competition. Intel's not known for supporting something once they obsolete it (Pentium Pro owners have my sympathy).

Original Article

[IntlHarvester]

The MSNBC version looks like it was edited. The orginal was on ZD here:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153, 397877,00.html.

The interesting thing is that if Compaq gets Intel marketing funds for their "Deskpro" line of computers, they can not use non-Intel for any model of that line. They need to start a new brand name.

Since most computer company's brand name line-up is already confusing, I imagine the barrier of adding a new brand name is pretty high. (Which is probaably why Dell doesn't do it.)


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