Would you avoid buying a PC with an Advanced Micro Devices chip inside because it wouldn’t let you host an Internet conference call with six of your friends?
Chip giant Intel is betting that at least some people would. Last week, Intel cut a deal with voice over Internet Protocol provider Skype that calls for the VoIP company to provide advanced conference-calling features exclusively on PCs that run Intel chips. As long as the deal is in place, it could effectively keep customers who want to take advantage of multiperson conference calls from going with AMD-based machines.
Expect more of these exclusive pacts as Intel takes a brass-knuckles approach to its long-running feud with AMD, particularly as Intel’s Viiv platform strategy of bundling home-entertainment software with its chips shifts into high gear over the next few months.
So what’s really going on here? Intel is essentially admitting it no longer wants to compete with AMD on price/performance.
Intel executives have talked at length over the past few years about moving past a marketing strategy that emphasizes chip speeds and power above all else.
Thoroughly stupid. And bad PR, I would think.
However, someone will hack it in the first week and it won’t matter anyway.
Monopoly class lawsuit, comming up! Don’t they allready own 80% of the market?
Let me comment to the statement by Locke,
Yes that is an example of Monopolistic Behavior. As was described in the Microsoft Anti-Trust suit “A company may not restrict competitors by proprietary enginering without a patent on the specific design” In English that means that if Skype wants to just make something for Intel chips thats fine, but if there is any evidence that collusion occurred between Intel and Skype, then both parties must be using, and only using, a method of interacting restricted to patented procedure/product/technology.
I’m very good at digging out my old Microsoft Anti-Trust posts from my old blog (don’t ask me why I save all that crap) but how it would apply in a real world lawsuit…….any lawyers out there???
Well, this can only lead the demise of skype; poor ebay…
Cue the irate Michael Robertson editorial. (I don’t even know if you can have conference calls via SIP, but if you can, this bodes well for Gizmo….)
Well, once this does happen, you’ll see a lot of usage and popularity to the Gizmo Project.
Real geeks use Asterisk.
Well I don’t care for Skype. I like Intel, I will always use Intel. I like ATI and I will never use nVidia. It’s a preference. If I like company I stick with them. If their product sucks one generation I’ll wait for the next that will be better.
For example, I don’t like the 955 Pentium 4 chips. However I just bought a new Yonah computer because they are good. Another example is with ATI: their X1800 sucked, but now with X1900, I’ll upgrade.
Ok so now AMD cuts a deal with that other VOIP company.
I agree its a bad way to gain market share. Not very consumer friendly.
This may be a deal-breaker for some corporate skype-users; but, even with 2 of us using the Mac version of Skype [which always lags behind in development], I was in a “conference call” a few days ago with my wife at software school in Alabama, my father-in-law at a bird sanctuary on the Texas coast and me, here at home in New Mexico.
As usual, the call functioned as it should. 2 Macs and a Dell.
Eideard, according to the article, 3- or 4-way conference calling still works fine… it’s more-than-5-way conference calling that Skype will now refuse to do unless you’re using an Intel chip. (Maybe it’ll work on Macs already, who knows.)
Thanks, raindog. I’ll take your word for it. Even though pretty much everyone in my extended family has switched to Skype, I don’t know if I can handle talking to four relatives simultaneously.
This is good. The processors are probably as fast as they need to be. TIme to start customizing properly.
Funny, skype still works just fine on my AMD machine…
Good idea on Intel’s part… Shame on skpe for going along with it…. Does this impact the linux version of Skype or just windows?
As John said.. it’s time for the next platform… a kick-ass Cell based graphics oriented general purpose computer running Linux. The time is coming.
I don’t think this will help Intel’s defense of AMD’s lawsuit. If Intel is already defending itself on monopoly charges, then why would they try to monopolize another segment of the market?
On Skype’s part, I don’t think this is the smartest move for them. Why try to alienate even 20% of your customer base at a minimum. If this means they need to upgrade ALL their computers to have the Intel chip then I don’t see many companies buying into it. Besides, how many 6 way conference calls are there?
Those of us who lived through the Balkanization of CP/M saw how this kind of thing can kill a whole operating system. (But maybe that’s overdue, in this case.)
I wonder what the long-term viability for these inevitably closed garden systems and business strategies will be?
Seems pretty stupid to position yourself as the company “beyond” computer chips and then start creating INTEL only products… not exactly the best way into people’s livingrooms. IMHO
Sounds a lot like iTunes and other MP3 players…
Stupid Move. Stupid Intel. Stupid Skype. Stupid People run them.