Intel CEO responds to OEM’s rants about direct chip sales

The Register has an interesting article about top-level OEM executives complaining(behind Intel’s back) about selling directly to distributors, retail, and consumers. Intel CEO Paul Otellini fires back and says that this is our business, we’ve been doing this for decades. I agree with him and at the same time I agree with catering to customers demands. But this is a bit far fetched coming from OEM’s. Consumers and businesses have every damn right to decide what they want to do in terms of their own PC’s. If they want to build their own(DIY’s) then so what? Regarding upgrades, If they bought a Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. they should be able to purchase an Intel chip to replace the one that’s in it without going through the OEM channel they originally bought the PC from. That’s the beauty of Intel’s business model, it gives the customers choices.

The article also mentions certain criticisms about Intel catering specifically to Google for building their own systems in data centers.  It mentions that Intel designs motherboards just for Google with low-powered chips, low-end memory, and low-end disk boundaries.  Intel is a company that is out to make profit and if that means designing something specifically for bulk purchase then so be it.