Er gingen al langer geruchten dat Gateway, in ruil voor een flinke zak geld van Intel en korting op CPU prijzen, geen Athlon processors zou gebruiken. Inmiddels is duidelijk dat die Athlon systemen er toch gaan komen, volgens The Register omdat Intel de deal heeft teruggetrokken. Het zou hierbij gaan om bedragen van 80 tot 100 miljoen dollar:
We now understand, from sources close to both companies, that the deal was worth very much more than that, closer to between $80 million and $100 million.Further, the deal offered Gateway a rebate of $50 for every Intel processor it bought, whether it was a Celeron, a Pentium III or a chip for notebooks.
And Intel, unilaterally, decided to pull the rug on this contract some little while back, meaning that Gateway felt free to once more start using AMD processors in its machine. However, the reasons for Intel deciding to end the contract still remain unclear.
An Intel representative said he could not comment on specific deals with the company's customers, but said that the Intel Inside marketing scheme had 1,500 members worldwide and since it was set up in 1991 had delivered a sum close to $4 billion in total ad value. Gateway was unavailable for comment.
