Intel’s domination continues
 Intel, the 2007 channel champion in the processor category, widened its lead over AMD to emerge a winner.
Intel revamped its channel strategy in the second quarter by introducing a second tier to distribute its products. The vendor also launched Atom processors, creating a new market of computing devices—netbooks and nettops.
In contrast, AMD had another dismal year. Within the first five months of 2008, AMD’s Director of Channels and Managing Director put in their papers.
Meanwhile, AMD’s Phenom processors and Opteron processors (code named Barcelona) received a luke-warm response from both partners and customers.
There was just one silver lining for AMD: there are still some very staunch partners who swear by its products and technologies.
Price-performance
Price, performance and features are important criteria for processors.
Both Intel and AMD raised the stakes with several new platform launches in 2009 with the former launching two new platforms, Nehalem and Atom, and the later launching its ambitious Shanghai platform to take on Nehalem.
Intel positioned its Pentium Dual Core and Core2Duo processors in the mainstream PC market, maintaining a price range of Rs 2,600-Rs 7,000 throughout the year.
AMD offered its Athlon 64, Athlon X2 and Phenom X3 processors at prices approximately 10-30 percent lower than comparable Intel chips, system makers feel that the final difference on the assembled product was less than Rs 1,000, a premium most customers were willing to cough up.
AMD was successfully positioning its low-cost, low-energy Semperon processors for entry-level markets. By Q3 2008, Intel started offering Atom processors bundled with motherboards at prices less than a typical Semperon CPU-motherboard combo.
In the high-end PC market, Intel Quad Core processors more than matched AMD’s Phenom X4 and even low-end Opterons. In the server class of processors, system builders felt that Xeons scored over Opterons.
Though AMD seems to have bridged the gap in terms of perceived price-performance by launching Phenom II and the third generation of Opterons (Shanghai), system makers feel that Intel’s new Core i7 (Nehalem) will take technology leadership away again.
Product availability
Throughout 2007, several SKUs were in shortage. However, in 2008, the numbers of such instances were low due to the slowdown in the overall desktop market. In fact, sub-distributors often felt they were over-stocking.
While there were a few instances of certain models being in shortage, overall Intel scored better on product availability. It appointed sub-distributors to ensure availability in tier-3 and tier-4 cities.
Intel working with its ODM partners ensured that there were more Intel-specific building blocks available in the market compared to AMD.
Hence, on an average, there were more than thrice the number of motherboard models across different form factors based on Intel architectures compared to AMD.
Marketing & branding
There is no denying that Intel enjoys a strong brand pull, thanks to its multi-million marketing spend. While AMD did make several attempts at advertising, the efforts were too small to create a decent impact. Intel also has a more robust channel communications strategy which regularly updates resellers on new products, price cuts and schemes.
AMD extended its High Flyer program, a year-long channel incentive program, to all partners, and organized multi-city road shows to revitalize the channel. This was well appreciated by the respondents.
Service & support
There were notes of displeasure from partners of both AMD and Intel in tier-3 and tier-4 cities, where RMA replacement times were 10-14 days. While the number of product failures were lower compared to 2007 for AMD, partners polled feel Intel does a better job of warranty and support.
In Q4 2008, Intel announced that it was setting up 11 RMA centers. This is expected to cut down RMA replacements from 10 days to a single day in major cities and in tier-2 and tier-3 cities from 15-20 days to a week.
Channel relationship
Intel has more structured channel programs, and holds meetings with resellers twice a year. Its technical training programs are also more frequent and comprehensive. While Intel takes a longer time to pay rebates, most respondents said that the process is smooth and structured.
Winner in the Microprocessors Category in Channel Champions 2007
l Home l Hard Drives l LCD Monitors l Optical Disk Drives l Motherboards l Antivirus-Consumer l Inkjet Printers l Laser Printers l Consumer PCs l Commercial PCs l Servers l Enterprise Storage l Networking l Network Cabling l Enterprise Security l UPS l
|