Time & Perspective Quote by Kevin Rollins

Rollins is doing that corporate tightrope walk where you praise a challenger without giving them a seat at the table. On the surface, it sounds generous: AMD is improving, the market is warming up, Dell will get there eventually. Underneath, it’s a negotiation tactic and a pressure valve aimed at three audiences at once: customers who want choice, investors who want margins, and Intel, which Dell depended on heavily at the time.

The repeating rhythm of “getting better” isn’t really a compliment; it’s a way of framing AMD as not quite ready yet, perpetually approaching adequacy. “There will come a time” pushes commitment into an undefined future, which is exactly where procurement promises go to die. It signals openness without conceding leverage. The most telling line is the last one: Dell hasn’t “been suffering” without AMD. That’s a strategic shrug meant to reassure Wall Street that Dell’s growth and profitability aren’t hostage to a rival chipmaker’s roadmap. It also subtly reminds AMD that Dell doesn’t need them, which is how you keep pricing power.

Context matters: this is the era when AMD’s Opteron was gaining credibility in servers and enthusiasts were touting performance-per-dollar, while Intel still dominated OEM relationships and marketing dollars. Rollins is acknowledging a shift in the cultural weather of tech - more skepticism toward single-supplier lock-in - but he’s also defending Dell’s then-core identity: operational efficiency over component evangelism. The subtext is simple: competition is useful, but only when it improves Dell’s bargaining position.