RE: "price war"
I think that a lot of different versions of "price war" have been tossed around lately. IMHO, the last price war was back when AMD only had a low end offering. Intel artificially lowered their low end price, much lower than the market demand necessitated, in order to put the hurts to AMD. The recent lowering of prices by each company could be argued to be a 'price war', but IMO is simply a reaction by each company to the overall environment of decreasing demand.
Regardless of what you call it though, prices have definitely been coming down. <warning: advertising rant approaching!>. AMD has been forced to maintain a significantly lower price than Intel. Why? I think we're seeing a changing of public opinion about AMD vs. Intel processors. Granted, AMD won't get 100% approval overnight, but they don't need that since they don't have 100% market share. The fact of the matter is, Athlon is AT LEAST very competitive with P4, and on most benchmarks, better. Duron absolutely crushes Celeron, and in fact, competes very well with P3. So it would seem that a significant ad campaign on AMD's part would be very beneficial:
1. Reinforce reality. For those purchasers out there that don't know, or that have only heard their nerdy friend talking about Athlon, this needs to be done. Some simple unrefutable facts would make the case by themselves.
2. Create demand (i.e. raise prices) in a low demand environment.
3. Post purchase satisfaction. Everyone likes to see a great ad for something they just purchased. You're more likely to brag about it if you know good things are being said about it elsewhere as well. Human nature. I heard somewhere that is a major thrust of many of the auto commercials you see: keep the recent buyers happy! Maybe Dave (dave22?, our local advertising expert) could comment?
Enough ranting. It just frustrates me that AMD has to have such a low price relative to an equal or even inferior product. I hope AMD doesn't succumb to lowering their prices even further, regardless of what Intel does. I think they could stand to hold them firm, or even raise them with a successful advertising blitz.
Enough preaching to the choir. <g>
FWIW,
JJ |
