Another Day With My PC

There will come a time (and it’s sooner than you think) when that dual or quad core processor of yours will become obsolete and will be replaced by a new chip that is 10-20 times more powerful. The news of its impending arrival has been received with both elation and frustration. Some are accusing Intel and AMD of flooding the market with beta chips, and that the two companies have been less candid with consumers on the release dates of their latest models.

Indeed, it would seem that Intel and AMD are taking us for a ride. It wasn’t long ago when Intel bannered its Core Duo processor as the best in the industry. Many rushed to buy new laptops and desktops that have the new chip. A few months later, Intel released the Core 2 Duo processor. Needless to say, the new chip’s predecessor became a collector’s item overnight.

Deceived

Many consumers bought the Core Duo processor, thinking that it’s Intel’s long-term replacement for the Pentium 4. It’s not surprising then, that they felt cheated when Intel released the Core 2 Duo in just a short span of time after it flooded the market with Core Duo chips. They said that Intel should’ve been candid enough to divulge that they will be coming up with another chip that’s twice as powerful as the Core Duo.

I’m one with those who feel bad about the way Intel plays in the market. Of course, it’s a good business strategy. However, consumers might also fight back by delaying the purchase of the chip-maker’s new releases. This could be very detrimental to Intel’s fiscal health, considering that consumers have the ability to delay the purchase of things, even essential ones, for an unreasonable length of time. The top producer of computer processors could then face the dilemma of having to advertise or banner both chips as the best in the market.

Patience Consumes Time, But Saves Money

You might contend that such a situation wouldn’t be a very big headache for Intel. In fact, it might even help them in reaching both spectrums of the market. The company has been successful before in marketing its Celeron and Pentium 4 chips. The former is considerably weaker compared to the latter. However, the Celeron is also substantially cheaper than the Pentium 4 and other more powerful processors. Intel marketed the Celeron to low-income consumers, while aggressively pushed for the use of its high-end chips to those who have plenty of cash to spare.

While the strategy proved to be successful for Intel in their Celeron-Pentium “situation,” especially in developing countries, such a scheme may not be applicable to its present dilemma. For one thing, the price discrepancy of the Core Duo and the Core 2 Duo is not that wide, if there’s any at all. Even if they do decide to cut the price tag of the weaker chip, I don’t think consumers would take a bite at it since they’re already anticipating the release of the next line of processors that Intel and AMD would be releasing within the year or early next year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 9:39 pm and is filed under General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.