The Invisible Cost of Visibility: Why Intel Faded Away
There was a time when I wouldn't buy a computer unless it had the sticker. " Intel Inside " was not just a slogan; it was a piece of marketing genius that changed the balance of power in the tech industry. It was an ingredient branding masterclass. They managed to make the average consumer care passionately about a component they would never see, touch, or fully understand. I remember hunting for the " Intel Core i7 " logo. I had a bad experience with an AMD laptop more than a decade ago, and that solidified my loyalty. Intel was the safety net. The brand was the guarantee of performance. The Shift to Commodity But somewhere along the line, the equation changed. Laptops became commodities. My purchasing criteria shifted. I stopped looking for the blue sticker and started looking at the utility. I stuck with Lenovo —even after it was no longer US-owned—because the form factor worked. I stopped caring about the processor generation and started scrutinizing the ...