AMD surging in consumer PC market

AMD surging in consumer PC market Though Advanced Micro Devices isn't bowling over Wall Street, it is doing the equivalent to archrival Intel at retail stores across the country. In a scenario that would have seemed unbelievable only a year ago, AMD has swept the shelves at many retail PC stores across the country. This success comes despite less-than-encouraging earnings reports from the Sunnyvale, California-based chip manufacturer. And these systems aren't coming from second tier vendors. Consumer PCs on shelves today from the top three retail suppliers--Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard--seem to be nearly all based around AMD chips. Sunday paper inserts are awash in AMD green. "We make more money on the AMD systems," said one representative at a CompUSA store in suburban Philadelphia. "It's all AMDthat's what they send us," quipped a sales person. Intel, of course, isn't standing still. On January 4, the company released new Celeron processors and pledged that it would win back retail market share. Price cuts on chips have flown from Intel since, and even faster Celerons are on the way next month. The company has also dedicated millions to a marketing effort around Celeron. AMD's rise can be seen at CompUSA, the largest PC retailer, where desktop PCs using Intel processors are completely absent in some lines. The store sells consumer systems from all three of the major consumer PC makers. At some stores surveyed on the West and East Coasts, CompUSA had no Compaq systems on the sales floor using Intel processors. All models, with exception of one or two that come with a Cyrix chip, were based on the AMD K6-2 processor. An OfficeMax store on the East Coast had no Intel systems. In a large downtown CompUSA store in New York, the makeup of consumer models from IBM is similar: AMD K6-2 across the board. An IBM spokesperson confirmed that most of its consumer systems use AMD chips but said this could change anytime. IBM evaluates the components it will use in consumer PCs month to month, he said. "Megahertz sells," said Mike Feibus, a principal at market researcher Mercury Research. The megahertz rating is the principal benchmark that consumers use to distinguish models. At any given price point in the low end, AMD sells more megahertz, Feibus said. "This was Intel's wake-up callnow you see fast and furious price declines and speed bumps [increases] from Intel trying to correct this." HP is also keen on using the K6. HP systems that appear at CompUSA, and stores such as Circuit City and Microcenter, are also mostly AMD, though there are one or two Intel models. A CompUSA store south of San Francisco carried no Intel-based systems from Compaq or IBM, though there were two HP models with Intel Pentium II chips. However, a sales person did say that new Pentium III systems from one or all of these vendors are expected in the coming weeks. On the 26th, Intel will introduce the Pentium III processor and high-end consumer systems Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard are expected. Moreover, Intel dominates business and corporate systems including notebooks, desktops, and servers. But this may be changing slowly. "AMD is using its beachhead in U.S. retail to push into other spaces that have historically been Intel-only market segmentsareas such as notebooks, direct, and possibly even the corporate channel," Feibus said. Source

Yes AMD is surging but there is a shortage of supply of chips at the * discounters * where volume sales take place. www.buycomp.com and www.necx.com have a combined 40,000 K6-2 350mhz's on back order with a 2 to 4 week delay for delivery to them. What is happening is that AMD is supplying the box makers and resellers with the processors first before sending a volume supply to the discounters. Maybe this is a tactic to keep the chip prices from falling further or perhaps AMD has production yield problems. I dunno, all I know is that if I have to wait much longer, I am going to reverse course and move to the Intel BX motherboards with the new Celeron. I do not stand alone in this thought. (BTW, I am looking for the retail boxed version of the AMD processors and will only buy when discounted at the above websites. I don't trust the OEM versions of the chip. Too many problems with proper shipping of OEM versions of chips.)

Sorry, no way. They are just another supplier of OEM chips with a 15 day warranty. (And they are overpriced at that.!) Good luck. >Checkout pricing at www.abservice.net >>Yes AMD is surging but there is a shortage of supply of chips at the * >>discounters * where volume sales take place. www.buycomp.com and >>www.necx.com have a combined 40,000 K6-2 350mhz's on back order with a 2 to

Quoted text (10 lines)

>>4 week delay for delivery to them. What is happening is that AMD is >>supplying the box makers and resellers with the processors first before >>sending a volume supply to the discounters. Maybe this is a tactic to keep >>the chip prices from falling further or perhaps AMD has production yield >>problems. I dunno, all I know is that if I have to wait much longer, I am >>going to reverse course and move to the Intel BX motherboards with the new >>Celeron. I do not stand alone in this thought. (BTW, I am looking for the >>retail boxed version of the AMD processors and will only buy when >discounted >>at the above websites. I don't trust the OEM versions of the chip. Too

many >>problems with proper shipping of OEM versions of chips.)

Yet you will deal with Buy.com? Check dejanews to see how very low the general opinion of this company is.

I just purchased a CPU from Buy.com. They said they had it in stock so I ordered it with two day delivery so I could put a machine together by the weekend. The second day came and I got an email telling me that it is backordered and will be 2 to 4 weeks before it comes in and if I want to cancel the order that I should call them. Well that day was Friday, I got the email late Friday and called them on Mon. Well they said that they would cancel the order and refund my credit card since they had already charged me the day of my order even though it was not in stock and would aparently not be sent for 2 to 4 weeks. Well after canceling the order and my ordering it from somewhere else, I recieved the order afterall. Now it looks like it will cost me half the cost of the CPU to return it since it is not damaged. No I don't want to do anymore business with BUY.COM Steve Wiser

Quoted text (16 lines)

>>Yes AMD is surging but there is a shortage of supply of chips at the * >>discounters * where volume sales take place. www.buycomp.com and >>www.necx.com have a combined 40,000 K6-2 350mhz's on back order with a 2 to >>4 week delay for delivery to them. What is happening is that AMD is >>supplying the box makers and resellers with the processors first before >>sending a volume supply to the discounters. Maybe this is a tactic to keep >>the chip prices from falling further or perhaps AMD has production yield >>problems. I dunno, all I know is that if I have to wait much longer, I am >>going to reverse course and move to the Intel BX motherboards with the new >>Celeron. I do not stand alone in this thought. (BTW, I am looking for the >>retail boxed version of the AMD processors and will only buy when discounted >>at the above websites. I don't trust the OEM versions of the chip. Too many >>problems with proper shipping of OEM versions of chips.) >Yet you will deal with Buy.com? Check dejanews to see how very low >the general opinion of this company is.

Isn't there a regulation that forbids them to charge you before they ship?, I don't use credit card, but I read it somewhere (Minotaur Technologies I think), if there is, I guess you could report them, i don't know where though

Just curious, Steve,...was it a Celeron 300A? I, and perhaps a few thousand other people, have one on backorder there.

According to US law if you receive a product via mail or other delivery service, that you did not order, you are under no obligation to return that product or pay for it!

says... IANAL, but I remember reading somewhere once that they're allowed to charge when you order, but if they don't ship within 30 days then they either must credit your card or at least offer to (can't remember which.)

It looks like Buy.com drop-ships directly out of their distributers (Ingram Micro) warehouses. This immensely complicates things like cancelled orders, returns, damaged goods, etc... It will be interesting to see how well the buying public puts up with the inevitable problems this distribution method entails... -Larry

Quoted text (16 lines)

> I just purchased a CPU from Buy.com. > They said they had it in stock so I ordered it with two day delivery > so I could put a machine together by the weekend. The second day > came and I got an email telling me that it is backordered and will be > 2 to 4 weeks before it comes in and if I want to cancel the order that > I should call them. Well that day was Friday, I got the email late > Friday and called them on Mon. Well they said that they would cancel > the order and refund my credit card since they had already charged me > the day of my order even though it was not in stock and would > aparently not be sent for 2 to 4 weeks. Well after canceling the > order and my ordering it from somewhere else, I recieved the order > afterall. Now it looks like it will cost me half the cost of the CPU > to return it since it is not damaged. > No I don't want to do anymore business with BUY.COM

I question whether we will actually ever see any more of these. Intel is scared to hell about this processor for the obvious reasons. I bet that if it does ship again, it's double-clock-locked. Watch... -Larry > Just curious, Steve,...was it a Celeron 300A? I, and perhaps a few thousand > other people, have one on backorder there.