At 05:23 PM 21/12/2010, Brian Weeden wrote:
Yes, you're right to a certain extent that the public doesn't care about
what's inside as long as it works, but there is a reasoning companies spend
billions on marketing and branding. Like it or not, Intel and AMD have
public perceptions of their brands that are largely independent of actual
performance. That's why companies have marketing, and it's true across many
domains.
Actually, I've never had a person turn down a chip based on a
perception of performance. People used to be leery of AMD not being
as stable as Intel, but in the Windows world, that has long since
disappeared as well. The only reason computers companies latch on to
Intel (or AMD) is due either marketing dollars or flat out payola
being paid by either Intel or AMD. (And since Intel has been charged
recently with doing that, I don't think they'll be as blatant about
it as they have been in the past.)
Perhaps Apple people are very different from Windows people (and god
knows, judging from some of the ones who come into the shop, that
could be true) but also based on that sample, I can't imagine any of
them actually understanding the hardware to the point where they
could tell what CPU was in the machine. Heck, if Apple announced
that their products ran on recovered technology from the Roswell
crash, most of the Apple people I deal with would believe it. :) (I
don't mean to tar all Apple people, many of whom, I am sure, are hard
core hardware people like the ones on this list, but if they are
hardcore hardware people, then they would realize that the hardware
doesn't matter, it's the performance that counts.)
Then there is also all the legal issues from the contracts and
relationships, as well as the intellectual property concerns. For example,
if the Apple/Intel relationship resulted in Apple getting access to
technology in Intel's pipeline or access to Intel's long range strategy,
Intel might have a legal case if Apple suddenly shifted to AMD.
I can't comment on this, but I'm willing to believe you're right here.
T
