Is Intel Trying to Promote Apple over AMD?

Video Beagle · June 2, 2021

A thought occured to me following the news thread about Intel marketing that PC's are better for gaming than M1 laptops, and the new LTT video about AMD's announcements , and my own knowledge from a degree in advertising and marketing....Is Intel trying to use Apple to hurt AMD's mindshare?

See, in marketing, a basic idea is, if you're #1, you don't mention your competitor. It brings them up to your level in people's minds. #2 would mention #1 because of the opposite, but #1 doesn't acknowledge #2. It's VERY noticble once you know to look for it.

Well, while Apple is of course a competetor towards Intel...they're not reall a major one in the same spaces when you get down to it. No PC gamer is going to look at a Mac for gaming, no matter how good M1 is. No business person is gonna look at Mac laptops if they're windows people.

Now, in part, this is intel telling the "public" Hey, We're on teh same level as Apple....Everyone knows Apple. You don't risk elevating them to your level because they're bigger than most everyone in the public mindspace. Tech people know this is dumb because of the points I mentioned above, and it even makes intel look desperate...but the tech public perception isn't as important as the mainstreams.

BUT, what if it's more than that. Intel's got a pretty stong name themselves..."Intel Inside" branding was REALLY good. They have a firm grip on mindshare for mainstram computer buyers. BUT, techwise, they actually are being threatened by AMD. I don't think AMD has as good of branding and public knowledge, but they're tech and price points can get them places even if they're marketing is lacking.

But, WHAT IF these desperate seeming, but Attention grabbing (because no one goes broke putting out videos attacking Apple, right LMG?) videos aren't meant to say "Intel is better than Apple" but more to say "We're intel, and APPLE...and only Apple and no other company with "a" in their name is our competition" Apple, by nature of it being one of the biggest companies there is puts a lot shade into the field, so Intel is standing there and point at Apple who's not really paying attention to any of this, but they're blocking the light from getting to AMD. (and again, I point out, this is about mainstream mindshare, not tech industry).

Just some 2 am thoughts.

mariushm · June 2, 2021

No, I suspect they're comparing against Apple because it's different architectures and they can resort to manipulating hardware configurations to win against Apple.

It's like comparing apples to oranges.

jaslion · June 2, 2021

12 minutes ago, mariushm said:

No, I suspect they're comparing against Apple because it's different architectures and they can resort to manipulating hardware configurations to win against Apple.

It's like comparing apples to oranges.

I mean they manipulate their own hardware comparison configs too like with a 7700hq 1080ti mobile vs a 9750h with a 2080m having better performance than the older laptop in gales. Well duh it has a better gpu and cpu of course it does and that is a terrible comparison as none of these are on equal footing.

Intel loves doing this and pretty much as you said m1 is different and does some things extremely well and others not so well mostly to do with x86 emulation and thus intel has true but also sort of false numbers to compare against.

Beerzerker · June 2, 2021

Seems to be a baiting tactic Intel is using to try and get Apple and AMD going at each other actively.
You know - Instigate the mess and once it starts, step out of the way and let it go wherever it's going to with no real consequence to yourself. They know if they do Apple will bury them, no way AMD has the resources to win this one.

However it would be just a bad if it were to backfire and Apple, seeing what's really decides to take offense and B-Slap Intel around... And they can do it if they really wanted to, justified or not.

Kronoton · June 2, 2021

I'd say its quite simpel.

Hubris.

For decades Intel has been untouchable, 68000 and later PPC was just a minor nuisance, AMD would only sell on price (and the times were they could sell on performance were rather short) and all that has changed now. Only noone told Intel.

Right now (and if you look at what has just been announced for quite a while longer) they can't even sell on price but only availability. So someone with no understanding of the real situation hired an add company which came up with some nonsense which for the informed buyers is summed up to:

"If a Mac ain't for you buy and AMD PC (and maybe throw some NVidia into the mix)".

While it is urban legend that there is no such thing as bad publicity, there for sure are add campaign with a negative outcome. Those that are so annoying or cringeworthy that the customer will go out of his way to avoid your product.