Scali wrote:Blue: Pentium (I believe the "Intel Inside" stickers were introduced in the Pentium age (possibly as a reaction to the Mac PowerPC machines), and these were the 'default' blue Intel colour)
I always thought that the "Intel Inside" campaign was more of a response to the growing use of IBM/Cyrix and AMD processors to create more affordable systems. If my memory is correct, even Compaq had decided to advertise their systems differently, so that it was less obvious which brand of processor was fitted. As a result, "Intel Inside" was introduced to ensure buyers that they were getting a genuine Intel processor, rather that one of those cheap, inferior things ("inferior" in that they didn't put any money in Intel's coffers).
I doubt the campaign was to combat the PowerPC threat. Apple was just about the only major manufacturer producing desktops using those processors, and it didn't seem likely that they'd still exist in 1996.
EDIT: I'm not so sure it was Compaq that changed the way they advertised the processors in their systems, but it was one of the major PC brands that was commonly sold in major chain stores. I'll post a link if I manage to find the old article.