Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Re: The other 80% of Intel's production for the rest of the year will be Netburst parts facing that new AMD pricing.

I think you underestimate how strong a portfolio Intel has. Their Pentium pricing goes down to sub-$100 price points, and their dual cores are only slightly more. In the U.S. markets where people are sophisticated, they will be going for Core 2 based products, with the low end being E6300 parts at $183 that beat anything that AMD has in terms of price/performance. Even budget overclockers will like the fact that these can overclock at least 60% from their stock frequency. I can also see a strong acceptance of higher priced Core 2 products against AMD's lineup.

Of course, in countries like China and India, where now >50% of Intel's sales are located, Pentium has a much stronger brand presence than Athlon, and buyers are not sophisticated enough to base their buying decisions on benchmarks. In these nations, Intel will undersell AMD's entire lineup and clobber them in sales.

Either way, AMD is going to lose. Intel's lineup is the strongest they've had in years, and for the first time, they are being very aggressive in pricing. Spin it any way you want, but AMD is not going to be gaining share anywhere.