Advertisment

Is it AMD's turn now?

author-image
DQC Bureau
New Update

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)'s struggle to get that fair share of the processor market is showing positive results. The last two years saw AMD playing a different tune. 

Advertisment

As a policy, AMD does not share its growth figures, but Haresh Bharia, Distribution Manager, SAARC Countries, AMD Far East (India), indicated that it has grown faster than the market. For the first time AMD appeared poised to shake the strong hold Intel has in the Indian processor market with its 64-bit x86 processor.

AMD started smelling small victories when it became the first company to come out with a 64-bit x86 chips which worked fine on a 32-bit architecture as well. Also it was the first to launch a dual-core x86 processor in the market. This time Intel has to play catch-up on its own platform. Intel soon followed suit with its own EM64T (Extended Memory 64 Technology) architecture.

"We knew we had a winning product and in the last two years all our efforts were focused on creating awareness of the 64-bit technology amongst the channels and the consumers. The results have been great," said
Haresh.

Advertisment

AMD's worldwide headquarters has taken note of India's growth and based on this AMD India was able to work out special pricings for local market. “This is up to 25% lower than the average international price," Haresh added.

That India is a key market for AMD was emphasized by the fact of AMD's Chairman, Chief Executive and President, Hector Ruiz scheduling a visit to India soon. While this will be more of an awareness trip, talks are that he would be meeting IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran to chart future roadmap for AMD in India.

AMD's seriousness in the country is also evident from the recent phased development it has been carrying out in India in the last two years. "Today, AMD in India is a lot bigger in terms of presence and size," said Haresh. "We now have a channel strategy that is working great for us," he added.

Advertisment

On the top tier, AMD has 10 Platinum partners and about 140 Gold partners. On the lowest tier, it has about 2500 registered AMD partners, which numbered only 400 in the year 2004. In terms of geographic presence in the country, AMD today is present (directly and indirectly) in over 119 locations as against only 35 about three years ago.

According to Haresh, a lot of customers have started to think beyond a Intel Pentium-4. "Now they know what an Athlon or an Opteron is, and its capabilities," said Haresh. "A lot of things have changed for the good, including the after sales support. In 2003, there was a delay in every stage of our after-sales support, but today we have a replacement center in Bangalore with a RMA turnaround of just seven to 10 days," said
Haresh.

For the year 2006, AMD plans to encourage more number of partners to enroll in its AAA partner program. "There will be new and better back-end schemes coming up like the most recent "South Africa trip" scheme," he added.

Advertisment

From Jan 2006, AMD also plans to educate and create awareness of AMD technologies in schools. The target is to cover 5000 schools in the first year. Year 2006 will also see AMD giving a fresh new approach to creating a presence in the OEM business.

AMD's '64-bit' strategy has helped the Indian team to emerge stronger. To add to it, a recent international news came as a morale booster for the entire team. The news: AMD edged past Intel in supplying processors for the US retail PC market, according to a study by research firm Current Analysis. In October 2005, AMD processors were in 49.8% of the PCs those retailers sold, compared with a 48.5% share for Intel in US.

Although this win may be a short-lived one, AMD has set out an aggressive growth projections for 2006 at its Analyst Day meeting at its headquarters in Sunnyvale recently, making it clear that it intends to take significant market share from rival Intel. "In microprocessors we expect to grow at two times the rate of the industry," said AMD CFO Bob Rivet reportedly during the meeting.

Advertisment

NELSON JOHNY

MUMBAI

Advertisment