Platforms and solutions
The priorities for SIs and retailers are summed up in the slide below, in which Macchi demonstrated how AMD would like the channel to alter the way it perceives and sells AMD products.
In this vision of things, we have “products”, “platforms” and “solutions”. The products are the components and SKUs themselves, the platforms are the manifestations of those products – CPU, GPU and chipset – in specific usage models.
The solutions, however, are a further step away from talking about the components themselves. You only need to look at how synonymous Intel’s Centrino has become with laptops, irrespective of the components that comprise it, to see how attractive it is to AMD for people to start thinking of its offerings in a similar light.
AMD Live! has been around for a while and is the multimedia solution. AMD’s emphasis here appears to be on HD video viewing and it is keen to become as synonymous with that as Centrino has with mobility. AMD Business Class was launched recently and covered by HEXUS.channel.
AMD Game! apparently has the same aspirations for gaming as Live! has for video. It is being officially launch next Monday and we will bring you full coverage then.
Macchi concluded by stressing that the ATI integration is now, finally, completed and that its quad-core server processor, Barcelona, is now “selling very well.” They also gave us all a keyring with a Barcelona die in it, which was nice.
Following Macchi’s opening presentation, we had short talks from three AMD channel partners: Raj Suman – European product marketing director for distributor Avnet, Emil Georgiev – MD of Bulgarian retailer/etailer Roldex and Orkun Dizdar – VP of Turkish SI/distie Bogazici.
All three were keen to stress how strong they find AMD’s commitment to the channel to be and when HEXUS.channel asked Avnet’s Suman how it could improve further, he said “It all comes down to products – the structure is in place and it just needs the products.”
Suman hit it on the head with his answer. There is a lot to be said for selling PCs as a solution rather than a collection of components – just look at the money Apple is making doing just that – but the components still need to be competitive for the solution to be compelling.
If AMD can demonstrate that, at a specific price-point, one of its solutions offers better performance and functionality than a system comprised of Intel and NVIDIA components, then it could well be on to a winner. The tricky bit is being able to do that and, even if it can, communicating it effectively to the channel and ultimately to consumers.
