So nothing at all to do with the fact that Intel and AMD effectively own the chip industry so can charge a hefty premium whereas laptop manufacturers are a dime a dozen?

To make more profit they simply have to put their prices up, but then they wouldn't be able to compete against all the other laptop manufacturers who are perefectly happy with profits of only 5%

Seems to me he'd be referring to Dell. Dell put me out of the white box PC business and many others as well. Profits aren't going to be "fairly distributed" in any industry, as whoever can generate the highest amount of sales and the most profits will lead the profit wars, however, consistent performance of 5% profit is not a bad thing and Acer is executing, whereas Dell is stumbling.

If we're really talking about AMD vs. Intel as far as chips are concerned, none of us have a say in that. Intel leads and AMD follows until AMD gets momentary momentum to scare Intel into producing superior chip architecture. The thing that does actually give AMD a leg up on Intel is their acquisition of ATI. In time, that "holy union" will bear fruit, especially in the notebook PC segment, which continues to grow and challenge the Desktop segment, if it hasn't overtaken it already.