AMD offers a helping hand in chip market

AMD has pledged to support its UK channel players to help it grab a larger share of the processor market.

In an exclusive interview with CRN, Giuseppe Amato, director of value propositions for EMEA at AMD, said the vendor has been listening to its market and is conscious that resellers and system builders need a helping hand to encourage end users to part with their cash.

“We want customers to upgrade to the £799 product rather than the £599. And if they were already thinking about the £799 one, let us get them up to £999,” he said.

Amato claimed AMD’s targeted 780 chipset, with its dual-, triple- and quad-core variations, offers enough variety to cater for any user.

“If someone says they like watching films, but nothing else, we can give them a triple-core. If they like making films and storing them on BluRay, the reseller knows to give them a quad-core. If they are a serious gamer, the reseller should move them up to 790 chipset.”

Amato highlighted the opportunities AMD’s latest flexible product range offers resellers to adapt to the desktop user’s changing news. “At any stage, resellers could upgrade a user from a triple-core to a quad-core,” he said.

But analysts remained unconvinced of AMD’s ability to provide serious competition to arch rival Intel.

Eszther Morvay, senior research analyst at IDC, said: “AMD has lost a lot of ground in recent years, with Intel seizing the initiative over mobility with Centrino. That makes the desktop a comparatively unexciting place to be, and AMD is mostly on the desktop.

“Intel overshadows them on product and marketing, and it is very close to the channel. That is a shame, because the industry needs healthy competition.”