I'm not so sure you can say that the only time AMD "bested" Intel was "Intel's own doing". I assume you are talking absolute performance (as at no time period has one side or the other owned top to bottom market dominance across all price points) and the Pentium 4 era. There were actually points in time when the fastest x86 chips on the market were based on the Pentium 4 (not for long stretches of time or at very attractive price points but they existed). On the other side, the original K7 Athlon outpaced the Pentium 2/III of the era for major stretches, if not the majority of the generation. Considering the Core era chips from Intel are (in at least design principals) derived from the P6, how could you consider that Intel's own fault. In the grand scheme of things, Intel is the (MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH) larger company and simply has the budget and manufacturing advantage that, with all other variables being equal, the faster performing chips. However, an acceptable margin to Intel is not exactly the same as one for AMD and this allows for AMD to pick it's battles and carve out a nice little niche for itself. If BD can secure the some spots in the <$250 market, then it should be considered a success, much akin to the 4000 series Radeons.