Chris Morley, the Director of Product Development for Velocity Micro, makes the argument that the major tier 1 PC OEMs are enjoying the current multi-core push because they can load their systems with more bloatware without the user noticing the performance hit.... Cynical, yes, but...

"Bloatware and craplets bog down system performance and make your system less responsive. Dual core technology makes this less obtrusive to the end user as a second processing core can be occupied with the all the pop-ups, advertisements, and 'free' offers while you are able to get your work done on the other."