Replies to post #116757 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

AMD never had the scale or software or branding to create a differentiated platform. They behaved as a commodity component supplier and were treated as such.

Apple can differentiate with software and services and user interfaces and use their brand to differentiate.

You seem to be making a distinction between commodity component suppliers and Apple, as if there's nothing in between - but the reality is that the Android and Microsoft ecosystems both treat silicon vendors as suppliers whose engines run a fixed operating system, with all the value-add at the 3rd party level. Apple is the only OEM that is also an OSV and 1st party ISV, and yet in spite of that synergy, Microsoft continues to dominate traditional form factors, and Android is gaining dominance in the phone/tablet space.

What that tells me is that it's possible to compete with the walled garden, simply out of a horizontal commodity play - as long as those commodity parts are well optimized with the OS to deliver a good experience.