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Steve Jobs and the Missing “Intel Inside” Sticker
- hungerstrike 9y agoPCs were faster than Macs in 1997 and they still are.
- habitue 9y agoI guess I thought this might actually tell the story of how Apple negotiated not to have the Intel inside sticker. Instead it just states that the sticker wasn't there and goes "we can only guess"
- ams6110 9y agoIIRC the Intel Inside sticker got OEMs a better price on the CPU. Apple probably agreed to pay the higher price and not have their sleek hardware cases sullied by the presence of a (gasp) sticker. Or perhaps there was enough incentive for Intel to get rid of the last remaining PowerPC platform in end-user computing. Certainly in volume alone Apple doesn't represent a very significant supplier of Intel-based computers.
- vesh 9y agoYou didn't get better pricing you did get marketing money.
- Retric 9y agoMoney is fungible, so de facto you got a lower price.
- mewse 9y agoMoney is fungible, so de facto I got a lower price on my house by eating cheap ramen noodles for lunch.
- sooheon 9y agoA CPU is more essential to a computer than ramen for lunch is to a house.
- LukeShu 9y agoAbility to get stickers is contingent on actually buying the CPU first. Buying ramen isn't contingent on first buying a house. The post you replied to is saying "A rebate is de facto a discount."
- jedrek 9y agoEating ramen noodles made home ownership more affordable for you.
- asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y agoDid you buy a batch load of ramen from the same supplier as your house?
- Spooky23 9y agoApple has more market power than you think -- they focus on a few models, those models sell like hot cakes and Apple pays for guarantees to get inventory. For Intel that means their factories keep pumping out chips like clockwork and inventory is low. Dell or HP sells more units, but in 300 or more SKUs each. Apple is different enough to get better terms.
- myrandomcomment 9y agoThis. Intel does not make money from the CPU in the broader sense, they make money by running their production lines at full tilt and getting paid for what comes off them.
- vesh 9y agoIntel Inside program was never mandatory.
- stephenc_c_ 9y agoPossibly part of the reason that other manufacturers did join the programme is that they thought it would help them sell more of their PCs. That was unlikely to be the case with Apple, who had their own marketing and didn't need a sticker to sell a laptop.
- megablast 9y agoIntel Inside was actually a tricky way for Intel to undercut their competitors. You had to apply to the Intel Inside option. You don't need to do anything to avoid it. If you are accepted, you get a kickback from Intel for every chip. Part of the condition is you put a little sticker in plain site. Any manufacturer could have shipped their machines without the Intel inside sticker, they just wouldn't get that moneyback.
- vilhelm_s 9y agoI wonder how much they pay per sticker?
- elihu 9y agoI wonder if there should be consumer protection laws that require anyone selling a product to disclose all the kickbacks they receive on that product to the buyer? I would love to know how much each product placement in a movie cost, how much some shady third-party paid to have their bloatware installed on all new laptops from a particular vendor, how much it cost to set the default browser, how much a TV manufacturer was paid to include a "smart TV" device in their product, etc..
- bobsam 9y agoWould love to see actual numbers my Android and PC OEMs receive to install bloatware. I bet it's not even any substantial sums, just enough to get some beancounter to push for it.
- ridiculous_fish 9y agoGoogle cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nsLB1cGJhukJ:kensegall.com/2017/06/steve-jobs-and-the-missing-intel-inside-sticker/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nsLB1cG...
- justboxing 9y ago> I approached him with my biggest concern: “Please tell me we won’t have to put the Intel Inside logo on our Macs.” > With a big grin, Steve looked me in the eye and said, “Trust me, I made sure that’s in the contract.” Isn't that all there is to it? If you don't want an "Intel Inside" sticker slapped on your computer, you negotiate it in the Contract. Was Intel that aggressive that they wouldn't sell the chip unless you slapped their sticker on your computers?? What am I missing?
- djsumdog 9y agoYea I was disappointed in this reveal as well. I mean the title isn't "Why Apple's don't have an Intel Inside Sticker" so I guess it's not a click-bait-n-switch. The author seems knowledgeable, having worked in marketing for both companies, and it was an interesting read. But we still don't have any details of what kind of deal was made? Did Apple chose to pay a higher price or did they get a similar discount with only have Intel on the box?
- wmf 9y agoOf course, the contract says you pay a higher price if you don't have the sticker.
- monocasa 9y agoOr some other consideration; it doesn't have to be monetary. For instance, maybe the fact that they heavily refer to the architecture switch as "Intel" vs. "PowerPC" instead of "x86" vs. "PowerPC" was enough to assuage Intel from a marketing standpoint.
- ghaff 9y agoNo. You just gave up a bunch of co-marketing dollars. (Probably a bit more complicated than that but basically you left the money associated with the stickers on the table.)
- elihu 9y agoProbably having Apple as a customer mattered a lot to Intel, so they were willing to be flexible. The HPs and Dells of the world are important too, but they can't afford to offend Intel, since they're all in a fierce low-margin competition with a bunch of other vendors that sell basically the same product. If they're at even a slight cost disadvantage, their profits evaporate. Apple had more leverage because they sell a product that's unique that their customers are willing to pay more for, and because they had a plan B if Intel refused to accommodate them.
- noonespecial 9y agoSteve was right. It really set the MacBooks apart when all of the other computers were literally festooned with a dozen cartoonish stickers all over making them look like cheap toys. Worse still, as you used the computers in real life, all of those stickers degraded into a gluey mess that got all over everything when you touched them. I still have flashbacks of using a heatgun and alcohol wipes to un-sticker 2 dozen new HP laptops before rolling them out. Ugh.
- monochromatic 9y agoNaphtha (zippo lighter fluid) is the best for this kind of thing.
- Theodores 9y agoI collect those stickers and intend to use them mischievously. Chromebook? i7 sticker with a tiling window manager and you instantly have what appears to be a hacker grade laptop. Fancy i7 machine? Celeron, obviously. This I do not do due to the shortage of genuine stickers. Maybe I will fix someone's computer one day. I will just add the sticker and they will feel it go faster.
- mwfunk 9y agoI've found that WD40 is amazing for removing even the worst sticker goop.
- robin_reala 9y agoDell tried this with their Adamo line but couldn’t go as far as removing it entirely; they ended up laser engraving it onto the bottom so it wouldn’t be as gaudy: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Dell-Adamo/719/1#s3824 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Dell-Adamo/719/1#s38...
- vacri 9y agoThis is a very long-winded way to say "We tried one tactic, they didn't take the bait, so we suckered them by buying their product". It's painted as an Apple victory because there's no sticker on the laptop, but not as an Intel victory, despite Apple switching to their chips. Weird.
- mcphage 9y ago> It's painted as an Apple victory It's painted as "Apple and Intel both won, without Apple having to give up something they cared about"
- remir 9y agoApple switching to x86 was great publicity for Intel. It was a big deal. People, blogs, mass media talked about it a lot. Because of this, I'm sure Steve negotiated a good price on those chips without Apple needing to be part of the "Intel Inside" program to get cheaper CPUs.
- profmonocle 9y agoSomething I'm more curious about is how they got out of putting carrier branding on the iPhone. As others have said, the Intel Inside program wasn't mandatory. But from what little I've heard about this, AT&T was very reluctant to concede this when the iPhone debuted. I wonder what concessions Apple had to make, and if the initial exclusivity had anything to do with it.
- addicted 9y agoPeople forget this but Apple didn't sign a contract with AT&T. They signed one with Cingular, which happened to be bought by AT&T right then. They got extremely lucky negotiating a contract with a smaller carrier, which then transformed into one with a bigger one.
- djsumdog 9y agoWas it Cingular that got that very first Edge iPhone? Man that was so long ago, but that does sound right. IIRC Cingular was part of AT&T originally, then split off, and then was re-absorbed. Eventually SBS bought AT&T, a couple of Bells and other carriers and renamed itself to AT&T.
- heartbreak 9y agoTo me the exclusivity was the carrier label on the back. Everybody associated the iPhone with AT&T. It didn't need it written on the case.
- ryandrake 9y agoI just had a look at a newish Lenovo sitting next to me and it's packed with gaudy logos stuck to the inside hand-rests: * Intel Inside * AMD Radeon graphics * Energy Star * 2x JBL speakers (two mentions of JBL, one's not even a sticker) * Dolby Digital Plus ...and a few others that depict generic features of the laptop (Do I really need a sticker to tell me I have a webcam on this thing?) Honestly it just looks tacky, like a Nascar car. I'll peel them off some time but yuck, totally tasteless.
- calafrax 9y agoThe stickers are there because they sell these things on store shelves to people who actually care about the hardware they are buying. They aren't that hard to take off.
- djsumdog 9y agoMy XPS 15 just had an Intel logo and I pulled it off after I got it. I kinda want to block out the Dell logo now on the bezel. I hate advertising.
- paulddraper 9y ago> yuck, totally tasteless Huh. Now that you mention it, I have a Windows _ (the _ is where the sticker is worn down -- 7, I think?) sticker on my Lenovo Thinkpad (which doesn't have Windows currently installed, mind you). Never really noticed it. I'm usually too busy starting at the tastefully design webpages dancing on my screen.
- artursapek 9y agoMy 1 year old Thinkpad has one too, but on the bottom. I guess the Microsoft kickback is less than the Intel one.
- detaro 9y agoA generic one, or the one with the license key? The latter at least makes some sense...
- ginger123 9y agoDid Ken Segall work in Apple during the time of iMac ? According to his linkedin Profile he was a consultant for Apple between 2005 - 2008. iMac was introduced in 1998.
- drawkbox 9y agoProbably during the Intel iMacs which came out in 2006ish, thus the reason he discusses the switchover from PowerPC to Intel. The move to Intel in 2006ish really was a genius move and game-changer just before iPhone launched. At agencies and game studios suddenly Apple was it for both designers and developers wanting a pretty *nix. Just in time for the new gaming/app platform 1-2 years later once the SDK launched.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- empressplay 9y agoThis article is not quite correct about why Apple switched to Intel. IBM was unable to provide a G5 chip suitable for laptop use. That's the whole reason in a nutshell.
- my123 9y agoApple knew about the P.A. Semi PWRficient, which was a beast beyond Intel chips by a large margin.
- wtallis 9y agoThe PWRficient processors started shipping a year after Intel's 64-bit mobile processor (Core 2). If PA Semi had delivered those chips two years earlier, Apple would probably have used them and put off the Intel switch.
- phmagic 9y agoApple has similar strict guidelines for Made for iPod devices.
- sblank 9y agoThe Intel Inside campaign wasn't just a consumer branding strategy. First and foremost it was a predatory marketing campaign that turned into exclusionary behavior. PC firms that used Intel chips and put Intel Inside on their PC's were given funds to use in advertising and were reimbursed for "marketing expenses". In reality these marketing funds were actually a subsidy/discount (some would say kickback) on Intel chips. As Intel's power grew they would only give the PC manufacturers rebates if they would buy 95% of their Microprocessors from Intel. If they used AMD or other microprocessors - all the Intel rebates would disappear. By the end of the 1990s, Intel had spent more than $7 billion on the Intel Inside campaign and had 2,700 PC firms locked up. By 2001 these rebates were running $1.5 billion a year. Intel was sued in Japan (for offering money to NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Sony, and Hitachi,) in the EU (for paying German retailers to sell Intel PC's only) and in the U.S. for predatory (pricing), exclusionary behavior, and the abuse of a dominant position (HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Gateway and Hitachi.) The legal record is pretty clear that Intel used payments, marketing loyalty rebates and threats to persuade computer manufacturers, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP), to limit their use of AMD processors. U.S. antitrust authorities have focused on whether the loyalty rebates used by Intel were a predatory device in violation of the Sherman Act. The European Commission (EC) brought similar charges and imposed a 1.06 billion Euros fine on Intel for abuse of a dominant position. The sum of these efforts not only killed competitors but it killed innovation in microprocessor design outside of Intel for decades. Ironically Intel's lack of innovation in the 21st century is a direct result of its 20th century policy of being a monopolist.
- davidf18 9y agoBut Intel did innovate: The processes for fabrication are ahead of all others. Also, they were the first to move away from the "higher frequency is better" to running lower power CPUs with more computation per clock cycle for mobile. IMHO, Apple should have moved to Intel when the IBM PC came out. The IBM PC used the Intel 8088 which ran Intel 8086 16-bit processor while using a cheaper 8-bit bus which could use the more mature and less expensive 8085 interface chips. The Apple II had only an 8-bit processor.
- tjoff 9y ago
- quicklime 9y agoAm I the only one who thinks that the three ads mentioned in the article (Snail, Burning Bunny, Steamroller) are incredibly tacky? The Apple ad from that era that people love and remember is Richard Dreyfus' Crazy Ones, and the author even thinks that they "upgraded to Jeff Goldblum".
- __david__ 9y agoI like them as ads. I still have the pentium snail somewhere in my desktop pictures folders. I don't mind negative ads at all when they're clever (and come from the underdog).
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- olivermarks 9y agoJobs was a genius at finding and employing the best ad agencies/talent and letting them work their magic. It is a large part of his mystique
- khazhou 9y agoJust to save folks some time, this doesn't give any details of how Steve got away with not putting on the sticker. Just says he said "trust me I'll make sure that won't happen " and then he negotiated it.
- khazhou 9y agoJust to save folks some time, this doesn't give any details of how Steve got away with not putting on the sticker. Just says he said "trust me I'll make sure that won't happen " and then he negotiated it.