an INTC/AMD price war is likely to allow Apple to run a bunch of free-this, discount-that promotions ... I'd say Apple would be forced to lower prices if everybody had access to the same cheap parts, but it's evident that Apple can offer 0% financing, iPod rebates, and so on in order to protect its sticker price while still showing customers a "deal".
Otherwise, a component price drop that benefits every manufacturer would tend to cause a retail price drop as competition emerges for customers.
Also: how many manufacturers are selling Intel's top-of-the-line units? Maybe the price drop benefits Apple disproportionately just because the top-of-the-line chips' price drop helps all Apple's machines (except aTV?), and less-than-all of competitors' machines. Hmm.
At any rate, the Intel switch is definitely paying dividends. Funny, ten years ago I thought not being Intel-based was a competitive advantage.
Take care,
--Tex.
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