SockPuppet :
Intel management is completely and utterly inept. They have no idea what they're doing. It's as if they're trying to run the company into an iceberg on purpose, but the strength of the Xeon-plated hull won't allow the ship to sink.
As much as I like the analogy, I don't think that's quite right. It's more like they're perfectly competent, but can't handle pressure at all. It's a sad thing to see, really. They have a ton of engineering talent, an excellent management team, and a solid R&D department. As soon as the pressure is on, though, every department basically loses touch with the other departments, and the teams responsible for consumer response/satisfaction suddenly go MIA.
I just hope that they don't pull the stunts they attempted in the P4 era. Unfortunately, the current situation is beginning to mirror what happened then in a number of ways. Specifically, the new products they're releasing have glaring flaws that should be quite concerning to consumers, but there's a vacuum of investigative reporting on the more serious issues with the sole exception of Tom's. In the P4 era, it was due to seriously underhanded marketing tactics on Intel's side. It was bad enough that they landed in court for paying off manufacturers to not offer AMD systems. They also rigged the benchmark software used at the time to give themselves a synthetic advantage.
This all seemed to change once they introduced some competitive products, though. Once they had something worth buying, they had no reason to spread false information anymore.
At the end of the day, Intel's management knows what they're doing, even if they have a history of being ethically bankrupt.
Note that all this occurred some time ago, and I might not remember it all correctly. I know Tom's Hardware was in a similar position back then as they are now as one of the few trustworthy review sites, so I would expect them to remember it in more detail.
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