I visited Microcenter here in Boston on saturday morning to get a sense of the latest computer models, sales, and advertising. 1st off, the store was pretty busy with customers. I finally talked to 2 salesmen. Both said sales were extrmely good. The PII 266 systems were sold out, and the PII 233 systems were also selling well. Intel had their marketing all over the store. There were life-size "bunny people" in 2 places in the store, and the monitors were running a bunny-people advertisement when not used. Microcenter was also pushing (right when you walk in) their own $499 computer with the Cyrix mediagx chip. there was a 2-week waiting list to get one of these, but the salesperson felt that they were not taking away sales from intel machines. i had a feeling they didn't have many of these in stock to begin with. While i was standing there, someone questioned why there wasn't an Intel chip inside, since he had never heard of Cyrix. I didn't notice any AMD machines. If they were there, they were buried in a corner somewhere.
I, for one, very much like the "bunny suit" ads on TV. Intel clearly seems to be targeting the consumer market. The ads are very catchy and easy to remember, and the name "intel" is mentioned several times. As for the AMD ads, i think they'll help Intel as much as AMD. Unlike the Intel ads, AMD name is only mentioned at the end of the commercial. IMO, harder to remember the AMD commericals. Not as catchy.
joey |
