Great article over at THG.
Intel"s strategy for CPU models focuses on the Pentium 4 as the leader in the mass market, as well as a continual increase in clock speed. Previously, this meant that since the introduction of the P4, the user has had to change platforms at least once. Nevertheless, the P4 chip has brought in a good profit margin (in tough times) for the company and has contributed to its positive record. On the other hand, the sales figures for the retail component market are still too low - among the real PC enthusiasts, hardly anyone goes for the P4. In this market segment, AMD remains the leader, offering its Athlon CPUs at a significantly lower price. The root of this problem lies in the hardware platform, which is much more expensive for the P4 than for the AMD Athlon XP. This scenario changes, though, if a large quantity of PCs equipped with the P4 are sold through discount chains. This is because typically in such cases only the cheapest components are used. This results in disappointment, however, because the high performance expectations for the P4 systems are never met. The inexperienced user is unable to compare this with a more powerful system equipped with the same processor.