AMD strictly moderated (AMD)

[CombJelly]

"There's an advantage to offering both. "

Sure. But take notebooks for example. Specifically, the V2000 series. This one only because I researched this recently. My wife wanted something more powerful than her Averatec that was on death's door. So that meant the ML-37 processor. 2GHz/1Meg cache. Because I was curious, I also configured it with a PentiumM at 1.8GHz and a Core Solo at 1.66. With an identical configuration, the PentiumM was a bit over $100 more and the Core Solo was over $300. Now true, the Core Solo would have better battery life, but the Turion system ran about $800, $300 is a big premium to pay. Likewise the $100 for the PentiumM.

So how to justify the price difference? To a consumer, they might be swayed with the Intel brand. They might not. If the business lines go the same way, how is an IT department going to justify paying a higher price for the same performance for Intel's name? Especially if the HP rep. tells them that the processors are equivalent.