[Be Free]

I think you might have missed part of the point - if AMD does come out with something close, but not quite there at - say - $200, Intel is going to have a hard time justifying a $150 premium, so they’ll likely have to drop their price to $225-$250. You’ll still get the Intel processor you prefer, but it’ll cost you 1/3rd less.

[Dr. Sivana]

but not quite there at - say - $200, Intel is going to have a hard time justifying a $150 premium

If they can meet a $200 price point they'll get some OEMs, but as these are high-end systems, I think most business class customers will go with Intel and spend the money. In the early days of Athlon, Intel adjusted their price, but not a whole lot, and their chips had a tendency to overheat back then. AMD never really took any bracket except gamers/overclockers and the low-end.

While AMD is a mature player, occasional glitches that are AMD specific with Windows patches still pop up occasionally. I hope you are right, though. Competition is good. I think right now Intel's competition is mainly from ARM based processors. Intel's scalability will keep them fighting off all comers in the desktop market for some time.