what changed?
Well Intel's strategy is a lot clearer now from when we just had the initial under-pricing, IMO, of Core 2 Duos which saw them deviate from the maximum margin strategy. They are planning to throw the whole kitchen sink at AMD, their design leads, their extra capacity and their lead in process generation. They still plan to outrun AMD but they have put the technology treadmill on super fast with the intention that AMD can't keep up and will fall off short of puff and it's already showing its effects in the reduction of revenue AMD experienced last quarter. When all the 65nm Fabs are producing C2Ds and 45nm comes online too only the fittest AMD skus will survive which could be just high-end Barcelonas and dirt cheap higher clocked X2s. AMD won't be able to get 30% unit share in that case and Intel will pick up the slack and gain marketshare by virtue of obsoleting a lot of AMD's current output. Finally with the rapid increase in performance/price in only a year with quad-cores and 3 GHz C2Ds at only $266 there should be a stronger then expected upgrade cycle due to this lifting the whole market. A maximum margin strategy would still have produced greater profit but this strategy will have the maximum negative impact on their competitor with Nehalem waiting menacingly in the wings.
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