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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (43292)	6/7/2001 11:01:24 PM
From: Charles R	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 275872

<You are clearly wrong here and showing bias.> What bias is that? <You are also wrong when you say the customer is always right. I have rarely seen such a foolish comment as: 'the customer is always right'The customer may be right or wrong, but the customer makes the buying decision, right or wrong and if he decides not to buy he is not a customer is he? That decision does not make him right or wrong. That comment came from the retail trade where the object was to become so pliant and agreeable to the customer that they would buy from you since he was so smart as to be right all the time.> Retail or not. The customer is always right and the only exception that I am aware of is if the customer does something illegal. <Intel has new server products every 6 months and they do not get design wins either until they are qualified after some period of time that can be well in excess of 6 months.> I believe there are Dual P4 Xeon servers and workstations shipping right now. May be you have an explanation for that. <I was quite amused by the bias shown in your rejoinder as well as the flaws in the logic??> Sigh!

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (43292)	6/8/2001 1:05:06 AM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

Bill, <Intel has new server products every 6 months and they do not get design wins either until they are qualified after some period of time that can be well in excess of 6 months.> Uh, Bill, Intel doesn't resort to the "Build it and they will come" strategy that AMD is using with their 760MP platform. Intel-based server design wins are locked in well in advance of the actual release. Without those advance design wins, the project becomes a prime candidate for the axe. Tenchusatsu

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (43292)	6/8/2001 2:31:14 AM
From: Epinephrine	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 275872

RE:<There can be no blame attached to AMD management for the lack of a server win at the major OEM level> <That comment came from the retail trade where the object was to become so pliant and agreeable to the customer that they would buy from you since he was so smart as to be right all the time.> Bill, What the heck are you talking about???, The phrase 'the customer is always right' has absolutely nothing at all to do with getting the customer to buy from you by making him feel smart as you are saying. It is instead a reminder to those who cater to a customer that the customer is the whole reason for being. Without the customer nothing else matters. If you are selling ice cream and your customer wants yellow mustard and horseradish on his banana split and you have some then you give it to him. It doesn't matter if he's crazy, he is the freaking customer, he is paying, and that makes his nasty ass sundae 'right'. As this applies to AMD it means that if they have the super duperest greatest coolest best stuff and their major customers don't want it then they did something wrong. Absolutely, without any hemming, hawing, or excuses. It is incumbent upon AMD to sell their product, to break into whatever market they are targeting. If they have great tech but suck at marketing and sales it is still very possible that they will fail. I am not saying AMD is going to fail, nor am I saying they unconditionally suck at marketing and sales or that they don't satisfy their customers. What I am saying is that for you to state that it is Compaq's, IBM's, Gateway's and Dell's fault for not buying AMD's server offerings and that AMD bears no burden of responsibility for that situation is ludicrous. Even if the situation is temporary and the OEM's eventually implement AMD solutions in their server lines that does not change the fact that the lack of their presence now is AMD's responsibility. If you want you can whine about Intel and it's hardball tactics or about conservatism in corporate IT but those are the rules of engagement and they aren't going to change any time soon. Many of us here have a great appreciation for what AMD has accomplished. I think their task has been daunting, and I am one of the crazy nuts who is actually dumb enough to think that AMD has been making progress since long before Athlon came into being. I personally remember many of the wins during the K6 days and I have read about much of what came before that and despite AMD's stumbles and misteps in the past I think that it is no coincidence that they alone are left standing in competition with Intel and that they survived long enough to bring us to where we are now. But to imply that AMD is perfect is just plain ridiculous and that is exactly what you are doing when you say it's not AMD's fault that they are very late in introducing SMP and that it's not their fault that they were incapable of finding a major partner to coincide with their launch. They never have been perfect and Athlon is not a bag of magic fairy dust that suddenly makes them perfect now, accept it. Epinephrine PS: If Alienware is the best that they can do right now then so be it, slow progress is still progress. The lost opportunity of a major OEM launch partner isn't the ideal situation but then again AMD isn't competing in a textbook they are scrapping in a real marketplace so less than ideal is sometimes acceptable, but it's still their fault.