This guy is an idiot.

[CougTek]

I'm talking about the one who signed that article (http://www.tomshardware.com/smoke/02q3/020704/index.html) at Tom's Hardware. Omid Rahmat.

I mean, what's his point? Apparently, he's pissed because people talks about AMD but doesn't buy enough of their CPUs. He complains about AMD only selling retail CPUs, but blames AMD's supporters because no major OEM uses their processors.

I'm still trying to understand the logic. I almost only sell Athlon because I think they represent a better bang for the buck for most people than Intel's processors. I own four computers currently, all AMD-based. What am I supposed to do? Camp in front of Dell's head quarters and protest until they launch an AMD-based system? Get real. Even if HP or Dell would start using mostly AMD platforms, it wouldn't make me buy their crappy boxes instead of building my owns.

The Tom bloke isn't too talented to choose his contributing editors.

[Prof.Wizard]

People don't understand that's even cheaper buying computers from "mum and pap" shops (like yours and Tannin's) than DELL.

I think the cheapest way to get your hands on a new PC is to choose the components from the PC store of your neighborhood.

I can say this from my experience. There's NO small retailer (in my home city in Greece and in my neighborhood here in Italy) that will try to sell you Intel nowdays... on the other hand, big chain retailers will almost always try to sell you an "Intel Inside"...

[CougTek]

What AMD needs to increase its market share is :
- Increased manufacturing capacity. Their deal with UMC (is it UMC or TMSC, I can't remember...) to produce their Athlon-line processors will certainly help, but it might not be enough to really compete with Intel seriously (at 50%-50% I mean).

- More robust platform. I'm talking about better heat-spreading mecanism, less buggy chipsets (better than it was, but VIA's south bridge up to the VT8233 are not up to par, and since VIA is by far the widest chipset supplier of AMD...), better electric supply design (using the 12V to feed the CPU like Intel does for the P4 for instance, so you don't need a super-dooper PSU for an average rig) and other trust-inspiring features on their platform.

- Once the above two points are adressed, more agressive marketing practices. First to gain more support from major OEMs and second, to draw more Joe-six-pack-I-like-your-ad-so-I-buy-your-stuff. Because unfortunately, the later category is still the main customer group even nowadays.
Other small points would be to regain the performance crown in streaming applications so A/V freaks and 3D gamers don't all go to Intel's camp and feed the idea than AMD isn't the best for serious/demanding multimedia stuff.

[CougTek]

What I hate is that AMD is perceived by professional wanna-bes (ie, people saying and venting they know their stuff because they have been working (almost always on hardware-unrelated jobs) for years and dress in shirt with ties, but who wouldn't be able to make a computer work from a pile of spare parts) to be good enough for the small-stuff/home use, but not for anything with a professional use.

These guys piss me like you have no idea. The worst is that it serves nothing to flame them because they will pedantly reply that they know better than you do, although it's NEVER the case.

[Cliptin]

I think the real question is why are none of the big boys building AMD boxes. You and I both know that they would if there were a financial upside to it.

There are certainly volume discounts for Intel chips as well as marketing kickbacks. I belive there are other incentives to stick with Intel as well.

I agree with all of your remedies Coug, but I think the crux of the mater is manufacturing capability. You can't sell what you ain't got.

[Mercutio]

My guess is the Intel offers a much steeper discount to the big boys than AMD does. Bigger discounts = higher margin.

Even more, my guess is that the reason everyone dropped AMD - at one point IBM, HP and Compaq all had AMD solutions - has very little to do with technical issues at all. I'll bet the sales reps from Intel just flat-out spent so much money on the purchasing departments of those big vendors that they wrote off AMD without a thought.

"Here's some tickets to the super bowl from your Intel sales rep. Remember your Tuesday meeting with the guy from AMD."

"AM-who?"

Drug companies in the US do that to basically everyone who makes decisions in health care all the time.

[CougTek]

This is the main flaw of our society and what makes it rotten. Corruption (in this case lobbying) I mean.

[Cliptin]

What about Gateway who had a few AMD lines and then dropped them?