The real reasons why Dell spurns AMD

WHILE THE VOLUME of letters we've published in the last 10 days represent only a fraction of those we've received, Dell's CEO Keith Rollins is most unlikely to be swayed by customers urging his firm to sell PCs using AMD.

Most unlikely, but not completely impossible.

This is not because Mr Rollins listens to customers but because the siren voices on the Island of Intella sing far sweeter melodies than AMD can.

Even if AMD's Hector Ruiz tries a quick riff on his Gibson guitar, aided and abetted by Mark Knopfler and Dweezil Zappa, that siren song won't allow Mr Rollins to swivel his eyes away from the Modern Medusa, La Intella.

Nevertheless, as one ex-Intel employee pointed out elsewhere last week, the chip firm is, probably quite rightly, terrified of Dell.

Dell is Intel's biggest customer, bar none, for its range of microprocessors, and we're pretty sure that when Craig Barrett and Mr Keith Rollins get chatting over a bottle of Round Rock in Dellshire, Texas, the good doctor comes as a supplicant rather than as a dictator.

While Mr Rollins may or may not listen to customers who buy PCs, it's pretty certain that Intel listens to its biggest customer, Dell Inc, when it's laying down the law.

And while Mr Rollins is no doubt very concerned about Intel's odd inability to keep its eye on the ball during 2004, he will also be watching his Excel spreadsheet and the amount of Intel Inside money that is going k'ching in the Dell till.

Far from the Intel Inside campaign being dead, as this photo we took at the now-dead Cyrix HQ in Richardson, Texas 10 years ago tried to suggest, the marketing coop fund is alive and kicking and contributing racks of coins to the Dell Body Corporate. Those doubloons and bezants have a magical influence on the mind of beancounters everywhere in the PC industry.

Further, while we're not suggesting that Mr Rollins is toying with Intel, there's no doubt that Dell Inc does talk to AMD, and makes pretty sure that the visitor's book in Round Rock, Dellshire, is open at the right page when the chip giant comes to visit.

So it's everything to do with what customers want, but you have to look a little bit further up the food chain to see what's cooking and realise that the biggest PC company in the world has far more sway over Chipzilla than most people realise.

Further, it was ever thus. µ