The problem might be that intel moved beyond todays market. We've seen a lot of reports about how the i7 is the future chip, but what if it really is? What if the gains are so small that it won't make people give out a lot for little gains.
Intel is also hoping to please the rich or willing to invest a lot consumer, but what about the people who want to just have a nice computer to do a bit of gaming and surfing? Why would they buy a i7. Yes I know Intel still has his core2 systems to sell, but a lot of people are waiting for the i5 or going for the phenomII, because that is/will be enough for them.
Same with Nvidia really. They are trying to sell to a market that is no longer here. The idea isn't bad, if they have the best top end card, they should have good cards throughout the line, but alas it's not true. I'm not saying Nvidia has bad cards, but there is a big gap in tech between the 250 and 260. For the average Joe it doesn't matter, but the 250 is already labeled negatively and we aren't looking for rebranding, we wanted to see the future card for the budget market.
Amd is not perfect, but they have a few good plans and they are executing things good atm. On both the video card and cpu market they are walking 1 step behind or more, but at the same time, they are bringing things people need, the best you can buy for your money for a lot of people. If you have too much money, the AMD is not a logical choice, but when you need a computer that doesn't drain your money completely, AMD becomes a better choice than Intel and Nvidia at some points throughout the line.
I'm happy AMD is finally getting their act together again and I hope we will see a lot more changes in the near future.