Well considering collusion is illegal in the anti-competitive sense I'm surprised, 'cause this would be vey risky on their part. If any actual record of this were to reach trade officials then this would really hurt both companies. Just the rumour should it get picked up by enough people, would hurt both companies' standing in the community.
<b>Sargeduck,</b> collusion is NEVER good for the consumer. Companies don't collude for altruistic reasons, they do so to increase profits. Either in the short term or the long term.
Having them release products at a slower rate doesn't mean they will focus on refining them and releasing the perfect product, they will simply release them at a slower rate and not need to spend as much on R&D, and will be able to cut back on staff due to less pressure to innovate and compete. Instead of fixing the problms and delivering a new core/board. They would simply fix the old core and offer you the GF4ti 4950, or the R8800 instead of the current DX9 offerings. Just slight revision of old stuff.
It would be like cutting back on driver releases, sure they may release more per release but waiting 2 months for a driver fix they discovere 2 weeks after the last one instead of getting it in a months time, isn't an improvement. The hard fought competition helps the consumer. The 'older' cards bring high level performance into the hands of the 'everyman' and the newer technology comes sooner so we get better visuals quicker. If it were up to ATI and nV together, instead of releasing the R420 and NV 40 (likely DX10 compatible cards and the only ones near term able to play D]|[ / HL2 a high settings) in early '04, they would likely wait for Longhorn top appear with DX10 in '05. That doesn't benifit us as consumers.
This is really the WORST thing that could happen and is, as I have always said, another reason we need a strong 3rd player in the 3D market (no chance with Creative, the P10 is basically Dead for gaming, and Matrox sadly isn't going to try re-entering the market).
I just hope this is one of those 'oopps we made a mistake' rumours the Inquirer sometimes has.
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