AMD's Leslie Sobon blasts Intel's marketing

by Sylvie Barak on 5 November 2009, 14:13

Retail wrath

But Sobon didn't reserve her wrath for Intel when it came to leaving consumers lost in the aisles, saying current retail environments also did little to help guide customers to what they really needed.

Sobon said staff at massive retail outfits like Best Buy "don't know much about the technology they're selling," explaining "last month they were working in the washer/dryer segment, in the next few months they're going back to school; they don't really care to take the time to learn." All this ignorance, it seems, is simply leading buyers to Intel machines time and time again.

To top it all, Sobon went on, "the retail environment isn't helping upsell." She said sales staff were letting people settle for netbooks or machines with lower capabilities than they expected because customers found the small form factors and colourful chassis rather "cute."

AMD says many people get frustrated with their underpowered netbooks and bring them back because "Cute doesn't necessarily do it."

Sobon advocated better training for retail store staff, saying AMD wanted to make it a priority that shop employees didn't mis-sell products to perplexed customers who couldn't find what they needed.

Sobon's diatribe is fundamentally aimed at evangelising the company's Vision branding. Do you agree with it?

Can you tell your T8100 from your X4500MHD? Is laptop labelling clear enough in the big stores? Tell us what you think.

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All very well saying this, but at least Intel actually market their products. I don't remember EVER seeing an AMD advert on the TV or listening to one on the radio.

Come to think of it, I haven't bought an AMD processor since the very excellent 4200 X2 came out - why? with their 2 or 3 socket changes (754, 939, AM, AM2, AM3 etc etc) later I still wouldn't be comfortable blowing 300-400 GBP on a new rig base and feel confident that the boards do everyhting I want.

How about actually doing something positive AMD? Like coming up with a BETTER naming convention and advertising campaign. I seem to remember that it was AMD that first moved to model numbers and not frequency related model numbers. Thye just took your idea and ran with it…

I do agree with her in part though. The core range with it's crossover between i5 and i7 is somewhat daft.:angst:

The thing I've found that is confusing customers the most at the moment is the i5 and i7 range on LGA1156.

I've had numerous requests for people to use LGA1366 CPU on a LGA1156 motherboard and the other way around because they've seen that the i7 860 is LGA1156 and expect the i7 920 to fit when it doesn't.

Deleted
All very well saying this, but at least Intel actually market their products. I don't remember EVER seeing an AMD advert on the TV or listening to one on the radio.

Come to think of it, I haven't bought an AMD processor since the very excellent 4200 X2 came out - why? with their 2 or 3 socket changes (754, 939, AM, AM2, AM3 etc etc) later I still wouldn't be comfortable blowing 300-400 GBP on a new rig base and feel confident that the boards do everyhting I want.

How about actually doing something positive AMD? Like coming up with a BETTER naming convention and advertising campaign. I seem to remember that it was AMD that first moved to model numbers and not frequency related model numbers. Thye just took your idea and ran with it…

I do agree with her in part though. The core range with it's crossover between i5 and i7 is somewhat daft.:angst:

Intel have had 4 sockets in the last 5 years - socket 478,socket 775,socket 1156 and socket 1366. Also,earlier socket 775 motherboards were not compatible with the 65nm Core2 processors and this was again repeated with the 45nm Core2 processors too.

OTH,most AM2 motherboards will take AM2 and AM2+ processors and AM2+ motherboards will take AM2,AM2+ and AM3 processors.

How many consumers are actually swayed by Intel advertising and in what way?

Intel adverts come across like shampoo ads to me - a collection of buzz words and brand names in a glossy set, that may trigger an ‘I recognize that’ response from punters catching a glimpse a sticker on a PC case, browsing around a PC store.

This probably works as Joe Public is more interested in buying an OEM box that handles facebook and itunes instead wondering about the internals.

Marketing is in its own world.

CAT-THE-FIFTH
OTH,most AM2 motherboards will take AM2 and AM2+ processors and AM2+ motherboards will take AM2,AM2+ and AM3 processors.

Strictly speaking, all AM2 motherboards will take AM3 processors: but I doubt many non-AM2+ motherboards will get BIOS updates to recognise the new processors. What effect that will have is debatable, but I believe a couple of Hexusites have had issues with high-end Phenom II X4s running @ 800MHz constantly due to lack of BIOS support on a Gigabyte mobo.

AMD don't have the marketing budget Intel do, and frankly Intel's over-emphasis on processors in marketing has caused more headaches for consumers than it's solved: I can't count the number of times friends and customers of mine have complained about their computer being too slow, and it turning out to be because they had a 3GHz P4 with 256MB RAM. I fully agree with AMD that a) we need to change how computers are marketed, and b) that most retail staff don't have the technical knowledge to sell an unknowledgable consumer the right computer.

As to the i5 / i7 / 1156 / 1366 debate, I thought AMD had demonstrated back in about 2003 that trying to support two different sockets simultaneously didn't work - I can't understand why Intel are so desperate to make the same mistake :rolleyes:

AMD's Leslie Sobon blasts Intel's marketing

Retail wrath

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