i think AMD can stay in the market. they will have to recover from getting caught behind the eight ball with the emergence of C2D but they will find their place
i don't think they will make the most "powerful" chips for awhile and if they do it won't be too much of a big deal in the marketplace. intel, as someone said above, is intel. they are a behemoth, a giant in the industry. when AMD AthlonX2 was the most powerful chip made intel still dominated the market, and it took an intel chip to bring dual core computing to the mainstream. AMD can hope to keep up, and i know bad blood exists between the two companies. but no matter how good AMD gets intel still has the name and reputation to outsell them at any given time.
i think Nehalem will be more powerful then any of AMD's offerings, but AMD can counter by offering solid, powerful, and reliable products at competitive prices. remember, not all are enthusiast like many here, and millions of people buy computers blindly. they have no idea of processors, graphics, or chipsets. and many businesses look at the bottom line. just give them something that works at a good price. so AMD certainly can stay in business
its at the enthusiast / professional level where they will hurt. and that means image and prestige suffer, too. if an intel based machine can finish crunching numbers or adding special effects to a movie, or go through thousands of pages of text document twice as fast as an AMD based computer, any working professional is going to take the more efficient unit. time is money and in those scenarios intel will save you money while helping you produce more
but for the home user and gamer....i think AMD will do fine. they're doing a good job with ATI and will always have a viable chip in the marketplace to compete with intel at a certain level. maybe even on the high end once again.
but AMD will never eclipse intel in the global market. they won't even come close. and even if they did intel would still win. why? because it says INTEL. that simple, really
i have an AMD chip. i run it stock. its a good chip i have no plans of "upgrading" to an intel or w/e. we'll see what Nehalem brings. and AMD in the future. but 'til then meh