I have heard the PIC microcontrollers being called “A triumph of marketing over engineering.”, which for those who work with these things on a day-to-day level is probably an apt description.
From a CPU standpoint, there are a few things I don’t like about the PIC in the way it works but personally, for the stuff I do, as a hobby, the PIC isn’t too bad a chip. Nice and cheap, abundant, and all sorts of features. Not to mention trying to pick up a programmer for an AVR, let alone an AVR chip itself locally is impossible.
Basically as far as I am concerned, it’s your typical camp argument…
PIC vs AVR, just like
Intel vs AMD
nVidia vs ATI
Playstation vs XBox
Ford vs Holden (got to be Australian to get that one :))
It’s all a case of personal preference, and even in this instance, the best tool for the job.