Tuesday, August 31, 2010

AMD to drop ATi branding

Quick note. I have received a confirmation email from AMD that there is a quote unquote brand transition on the horizon. The brand transitioning will see the removal of the ATi branding.

Now, as of this posting, I haven't actually had time to sit and talk with anybody from AMD over the subject. That doesn't mean I don't have some possibly awkward questions to ask them, if the questions can be answered.

First Question: Right now, every single Nintendo Wii that is shipping carries an ATi branding. I'm curious to know if the retirement of the ATi brand name will see Nintendo shipping retail boxes with the ATi logo replaced by an AMD logo.

Second Question: Are there any possible corporate relationships that could could deteriorate from listing an Intel Processor with an AMD graphics chip. Given some of the petty behavior witnessed by some tech corporations, is it possible that dropping the ATi branding will see competitors like Intel leaning on vendors to not use the AMD branding?

I guess what I'm going for can be demonstrated by Dell. Just go to http://www.dell.com/home/laptops and try to search for a laptop by the graphics chip. You'll find that you can search by Integrated Graphics and Dedicated Video Card on the Dell site. Once you make a selection the actual graphics chip information is still not displayed anywhere on the search results. In fact, it's not until you get to the Alienware models that Radeon graphics cards get any mention in the base search results.

I can just see more of this type of buried information tagging from some of the more petty tech companies. Yes, Intel has gotten better on the community relations front, and the not breaking every single Trade Law ever written front, but there's always the concern that the new friendly Intel is just a front in and of itself.

As far as I know, AMD has not addressed these particular questions, so this could be interesting if they do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is just a blatent attempt by AMD to build positive public perception. By dropping the ATI name, yet keeping the Radeon and fire lines alive AND attaching the AMD branding to those names, AMD hopes to capitalize on and transfer the acceptance/desirability of ATIs products to its own line of processors.

AMD is still feeling the after effects of the Phenom debacle. While their core phan base never abandoned them, even when every inch of hype about the phenom proved to be false, that segement of consumers was/is far too small to support the chip manufacturer. Just at the moment when they were expanding a strong, positive public perception, allowing them to command higher premiums for their products, Intel pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat with core 2. AMDs response was to rush a piece of junk to market,just at the moment when all eyes were on them, and in the process they dealt themselves a devestating blow.

In these tough economic times people are far less likely make risky investments with their hard earned dollars. While to the savy consumer "intel inside" means nothing(knowing that intel has made many if not more of its own blunders than AMD) to the uninformed consumer, "intel inside" means reliability.

AMD needs to do somethiong about that.

Ditching the ATI brand while holding onto Radeon and FireGL and attaching AMD to those lines allows them to do just that. Anything else AMD is spewing....the crap about need to avoid confusion over the upcoming 'fusion' is just that...marketing crap.


Turpitt

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