Steven Guess van Tech Extreme heeft een artikel geschreven over de prijsstrategie van AMD. Volgens Steven probeert AMD de tragere Athlons (650MHz en daaronder) snel van de markt te halen om op die manier consumenten eerder richting de snellere processors te pushen. Deze snelle processor range (700MHz +) is nou net het gebied waar Intel niet goed vertegenwoordigd is vanwege haar bekende leveringsproblemen.
To close in on the real reason AMD is pricing the way it is come April 24th, let's take a look at the numbers for it's 600, 650, and 700 models. The 600Mhz model (in quantities of 1000) will cost $170, the 650Mhz model will cost $170 and the 700Mhz model will cost $197. Look at the numbers; the 600 and 650Mhz models are being phased out. AMD is doing to the 600 models what it did to the 500 and 550Mhz chips months before. It is pushing consumers and OEM's towards the high-speeds. But why push? The market gradually moves ahead anyway, why is there a need to artificially inflate them? Because they are taking the CPU wars to a playing field heavily in AMD's favor.
Now it makes sense. AMD wants to convert its production resources to higher speeds so that the entire industry maneuvers into a state where most models sold are at 650, 700+ speeds-where it can compete. Those are the very speeds that Intel cannot cope with. AMD is hoping to have ads across the country showing the 550, 600Mhz Pentium 3 models sitting on the page opposite 650 and 700 Athlon systems. Consumer's don't have really have loyalties, and they really don't care what brand processor is in their machine. High end users do, but the vast majority of the public really doesn't understand the difference between an Athlon's FSB and a Coppermine FSB, not to mention the cache speed of an Athlon versus the Pentium 3. AMD hopes that when they see a higher number on one page and a lower one on the other they make the simple, and quite logical, decision to pick Athlon systems. More bang for your buck. It's basic consumer math.
Thanks Venator voor de tip.