Article makes case that Centrino's Wi-Fi component enabled Intel to sell more laptops and make more money: The article blurs the line a bit between whether there was more money to be made via Wi-Fi itself (where margins are low, but Intel might have picked up a buck or two per laptop chipset) or by selling more laptop chipsets because Wi-Fi was an included option.
For instance, Jimmy Chang, an analyst at U.S. Trust Corp., which manages $80 billion and owns Intel shares..."Intel makes more money bundling the Wi-Fi chips along with the microprocessor." I can see how you could interpret this statement either way.
People are spending more for Centrino, the article says at one point, but that's just at IBM's site. Centrino and Pentium-M computers have a huge price range, and I don't know that anyone's done a feature-for-feature, dollar-for-dollar comparison.
I guess the point they make is that: When the notebook market generally has higher margins and less pricing pressure because the consumers' buying decision is (not yet) down to price, the suppliers to the OEMs in that market would naturally also feel less pricing pressure.
When the Centrino is sold via a feature (Wi-Fi capability) and not as the Pentium via price or mere speed, it would come naturally that margins for the Centrino could be higher.
I find that to be quite plausible. But then again, I could be wrong.