By K R Nambiar, CRN, June 29 2009, 1600 hrs
To garner a larger share of the gaming and geek community, AMD India has unveiled a number of initiatives in partnership with its select partners. AMD is assisting a few of them to set up AMD-certified gaming cafés. It recently concluded a multi-city training initiative called Sparx, where nearly 2,000 resellers and systems builders were trained to address the specific demands of the geek community.
“We have some unique value propositions compared to our competitors in select communities such as gamers and geeks. We have been engaging with the gaming community for some time, but now plan to do it in a more regular and focused manner. The AMD-certified gaming café is one such example,” said Deepanshu Sharma, General Manager, AMD India.
AMD-certified gaming cafés are cafés where gaming stations use AMD-recognized platforms. “Apart from helping café owners choose the best platforms based on AMD and ATI, we assist them in branding, and in building gaming communities in their neighborhood,” added Sharma.
At present there are about 20 such cafés in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. “Unlike an Internet café, the entrepreneur running the gaming café needs to have passion for gaming and must be a gamer himself,” said Sharma.
“I own around four cafés in Mumbai and am planning to open a fifth one soon. It’s a profitable business though we are not raking in any great profits. All our systems are AMD-certified. Beyond money, it’s the passion that’s driving me,” said Kevin Picardo who has branded his AMD-certified cafés as Hangout.
Another customer segment AMD is trying to nurture is the power-user. “Unlike developed countries where there’s a large community of tech enthusiasts, in India this community is small. We would like to grow this
community as we believe they identify themselves more with AMD than the competition,” Sharma said. |