Nvidia partners, exclusive ones or the ones that sells ATI and Nvidia wish that ATI comes back stronger. They are all desperate as Nvidia became incredibly arrogant.

It is very hard to work with Nvidia, as Nvidia is adjusting the prices and hurts their businesses all with the goal of making nice profits in its mind. A few sources independently suggested that they need a stronger ATI as this would stabilize the market.

Nvidia is in charge and it prioritizes partners and sells whoever it wants for the prices it wants. If R600 was the chip to dethrone Nvidia things would certainly change but unfortunately it is not.  So anyone who makes Nvidia cards will continue to hurt due to Nvidia's moves, while ATI partners will remain desperate for better products and real volume shipments.