The
contention is that AMD has burned retailers with its handling of such cashback payments in the past. I suppose there could be some friction with AIBs, too. Again, I don't know if the rumor is true, but it does fit the facts. Have you ever heard of a situation where there were widespread reports of retailers holding GPUs long before the products were even officially
announced? Maybe I've been living under a rock, but this whole thing seems highly unusual to me. And it's well established that AMD can't help stepping on its own genitals, WRT to pricing strategy.