Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Petz who wrote (77442)	10/27/1999 6:55:00 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573430

Petz, I agree regarding the marketing advantage of labeling things "Athlon-optimized." However, MS' Gamebox isn't exactly a high-margin market for AMD. On the contrary, even if MS sells the Gamebox as a loss leader and makes up for it in software (assuming they can, which is also very unlikely due to the open nature of the PC platform), AMD will have to sell Athlons to MS at rock-bottom prices. Remember the last time AMD tried building a business model around selling processors at rock-bottom prices? I'm sure we can go round-n-round with retorts like "Oh, the Gamebox is just a novelty," or "AMD will make up for the losses with sales of high-end Athlon Ultra," or "AMD just doesn't have the manufacturing capacity, even with Fab 30," etc. But each answer just leads to even more questions. That's why I have a tough time seeing how this Gamebox can be considered a good thing for AMD, at least in practice. Tenchusatsu

To: Petz who wrote (77442)	10/27/1999 7:01:00 PM
From: Gopher Broke	Respond to of 1573430

I think it is bigger than that. It is called a Gamebox to get the device accepted, but Microsoft must be looking further ahead than this. I suspect they see it less as a games console and more as a foothold in the "living room software" market. They see a the huge untapped market for non-games software, if they can just get their OS running on the set-top. "Great games performance, plus it runs all Microsoft home and office applications" would be a big selling point, whether you actually need the capability or not. Just an extension of the "PC in every home" vision. "PC on every TV" sells more software licenses.