MY TWELFTH LETTER TO THE EDITOR AT THE POST
One fine Sunday morning I was perusing the paper as is my wont when I came across what appeared to be a planted story by Intel. I had no other explanation for the article which urged people to ignore price and performance and just make sure to buy a computer with an Intel chip in it. I tapped out the following letter before my blood cooled. Amazingly, the paper ran it - probably because it was about technology, somewhere they really want to go but which they get few letters about.
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Subject: Letter to the Editor
It's great that the Post Dispatch is trying to help your readers with personal computers. The article you ran in the September 12 Post by Bill Husted about Intel chips was a disservice, however. I've never read a worse propaganda piece for Intel, and I've read plenty over the years. Mr Husted thinks you should always buy a PC with an Intel processor because if a manufacturer uses a non-intel chip, they probably cut other corners as well.
In fact, Mr. Husted is dead wrong, and here's why. If you are comparing to similarly priced PCs with similar chips, and the non-Intel chip cost less (as Mr. Husted pointed out), you have to wonder where the manufacturer who used Intel made up the difference in cost through cheaper components, not the manufacturer used a non-Intel chip. In other words, the manufacturer who uses the non-Intel chip can provide a cost advantage without cutting corners, where the manufacturer who uses the Intel chip has to cut corners to be price competitive.
Kevin Murphy
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This page last updated 21 September 1999
© Contents copyright Kevin Murphy 1999. All rights reserved.