Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[woggut]

A friend of mine ( Dr. in Marketing ) used to say "There's only one thing that motivates in business, and that's 'making money' "
The continual downward price-spiral in the PC business caused effectively by the price-bands remaining constant whilst new product are introduced, means that "holding products in stock" is a dangerous business.

The OEM's are willing participants in this exercise. Since the K6 generation they've been playing the "INTC = business = high margin" vs "AMD = home = low margin" game. The last thing they want is the collapsing margins of the home market. For the last 5 years or so you could (almost) always get a higher performing pc at the same price point using AMD cpu's (more $ for memory / disk / video).
I think it's a bit like game theory's Prisoner's Dilemma. Everyone is better off if everyone cooperates, but the first one to defect generates outsized gains. The difference here is the implicit threat of punishment of the first defector by the dominant supplier. Other than SUN (who wasn't really in the X86 market), we're just getting to the capacity/technology point where AMD can change the game.