AMD to axe a few more staff as it struggles to get back to black AMD has unveiled a belt-tightening plan that the struggling chipmaker hopes will get its finances back on track to profitability. We were told to expect changes after AMD's latest dispiriting earnings report in July, although no specifics were offered at the time. You needn't have been a fortune teller to predict that heads …
Being number two in highly competitive markets is a pain. The number one always has more money to spend on R&D and marketing. As long as Intel doesn't do another management induced stumble like the Pentium4/RDRAM bundling deal or the "64 bit only on ITANIC" disaster, AMD will always have a tough time. Pity, that AMD wasn't able to secure their market at these occasions. Intel's marketing machine was strong enough to make up for the gaps.
Well that and those occasions where Intel actually paid people to buy its chips over AMDs. I've never fully understood why AMD settled the way it did but I suppose they just couldn't afford the massive legal battle it would have taken to get more.
AMD are making some gains, though. HP are now putting their new chips in professional grade laptops. That's a real achievement because AMD have always suffered through their chips only being available in low-end products. There are plenty of people who have said they would buy an AMD laptop if it didn't also mean a crappy screen / case / keyboard. Both AMD and Intel processors have entered "good enough" territory some time ago. Now that you can actually get AMD chips in a decent device, we'll see how that plays out for them. Zen is also taped out and getting ready for production. Not saying the remaining stages are easy or risk-free, but it is nearly the final strait and barring disaster, Zen is now finalized and moving steadily towards us. Graphics cards were also hit by the failure to reduce node size - which was a foundry problem, not AMDs. It affected AMD and NVIDIA both, but the latter had more money to handle the loss. The current Radeons are not what was intended originally. Now that such issues are resolved, the next generation of cards, with HBM and an architecture that properly takes advantage of that, as well as HSA becoming relevant, mean AMD could really turn things around in a very impressive fashion.
IF they can hold on long-enough. I see it as a waiting game. If AMD can cling on, they're turning in the right direction. They just need to survive long enough for all their work to start bringing in the rewards. Don't know if they will but much of what I've seen indicates to me that if they can, they can rise again.
AMD needs a 3 prong approach :
1) Tap into developing markets like INDIA ( Across India and not on metro's alone). Its funny to note that AMD processor workstations, laptops & desktops are NOT available across cities like chennai which are quite large. Maybe the traditional dealership pipeline needs to be re-laid.
2) Partnering with small time assemblers ( Still a major business model across the villages & townships in india - refer to case study of Asian paints).
3) Marketing strategies to be strengthened for ONLINE presence & Retailing (refer to dell case for a developing country like INDIA).
All the very best as AMD is still the BEST.
AMD needs a 3 prong approach :
1) Tap into developing markets like INDIA ( Across India and not on metro's alone). Its funny to note that AMD processor workstations, laptops & desktops are NOT available across cities like chennai which are quite large. Maybe the traditional dealership pipeline needs to be re-laid.
2) Partnering with small time assemblers ( Still a major business model across the villages & townships in india - refer to case study of Asian paints).
3) Marketing strategies to be strengthened for ONLINE presence & Retailing (refer to dell case for a developing country like INDIA).
All the very best as AMD is still the BEST.
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