Intel limiting Atom shipments to non-mainstream customers?

[Golgatha]

Regarding - http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.../Stock%20News/2311156/

In fact, Intel once actively offered Atom processors to such knockoff producers in the face of large demands. Such deals somewhat helped Intel win the competition against the companies like VIA Technologies, Inc. (TPE: 2388) and ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) in the mainland microprocessor market. By far, the Atom brand has dominated the local knockoff netbook industry.

Although the shipment of Atom processors kept growing, the normal netbook market suffered a shock from knockoff makers. As knockoff producers continuously lower the sizes and prices of their products, 10-inch normal netbooks can hardly hold out the prices of USD 399 to USD 499 expected by Intel and its disciplined customers, according to insiders.

The way I read it, they offered the CPUs in the beginning to keep competition from getting contracts, and then limit stock when the average selling price point desired for Intel netbooks isn't being upheld by some of the more agile competition to their larger customers? This reeks of bullying by Intel's big customers, with the intention of fixing prices on netbooks to me. I'm sure this wouldn't hurt the ASP for the Atom CPUs Intel is diverting to the big name manufacturers too.

 

[Idontcare]

It's plausible.

So long as enough OEM's run to Intel's teet to take a drink of the cheap chips whenever it is made available to them; they, collectively, will continue to enable Intel to manage their supply chain dynamics and market segregation in this manner.

Nothing illegal about it, if in fact it is even happening, but it takes two to maintain a relationship and if no one is willing to break the cycle and enable Via or AMD to really bring competition to this market segment then I don't see how we can anthropogenically blame "Intel" as the villain here.

Everybody ran for the cheap option to undercut their competition, Intel offered that cheap option to undercut their competition and the customers elected to pursue Intel's option so as to undercut their competition as well.

To scream morality and ethics when the chips get laid down and, naturally, some competitors lost out in the process of it all is just sour grapes, to assign yet another human trait to anthropogenicize the underlying businesses.

 

[Lonyo]

http://arstechnica.com/hardwar...ong-netbook-demand.ars
(Notice the date, August 2008) Maybe it's a similar problem. With the potential upsurge in demand for other CPUs as retailers and OEMs stock up again after the downturn and return inventory to normal numbers, there could be more demand than they can cope with, meaning atom takes a back seat and they sell then to their top tier OEMs rather than to everyone.
Or it could be a cynical move to protect their favoured partners.

 

[VirtualLarry]

10-inch normal netbooks can hardly hold out the prices of USD 399 to USD 499 expected by Intel and its disciplined customers, according to insiders.

That's a pretty stupid price-point for them to attempt to hold with netbooks, when you can get a full dual-core 15.4" laptop for those prices.

Netbooks should be $200, no more, IMHO, given their limited usability.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

10-inch normal netbooks can hardly hold out the prices of USD 399 to USD 499 expected by Intel and its disciplined customers, according to insiders.

That's a pretty stupid price-point for them to attempt to hold with netbooks, when you can get a full dual-core 15.4" laptop for those prices.

Netbooks should be $200, no more, IMHO, given their limited usability.

😀 and I'm happy about that too...typing from my $499 Dell 1525, dual-core 15" widescreen.

Although I'd be happy if this very laptop had a Atom in it instead of this core cpu, I don't need the horsepower and it does get hot on my lap. If I had the option to "step down" to same form factor but with an Atom chip for say $100 less then I absolutely would have gone for it. Maybe not many others would, not enough to support such a market segment, but I would.

At any rate, yeah a $500 atom laptop will be a tough sell. Apple could do it though.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

10-inch normal netbooks can hardly hold out the prices of USD 399 to USD 499 expected by Intel and its disciplined customers, according to insiders.

That's a pretty stupid price-point for them to attempt to hold with netbooks, when you can get a full dual-core 15.4" laptop for those prices.

Netbooks should be $200, no more, IMHO, given their limited usability.

A full dual core laptop is bigger, heavier and has a shorter battery life.
The netbooks are the cheap version of the things which used to be $1500 and had single core CPUs and 12" screens and were prices against things with dual cores, 15" screens etc.

You can't say "oh someone would only get a $500 proper laptop and never a $500 Atom based laptop" when Netbooks are doing the same thing at $500 that ultraportables used to do at $1500, compete by offering different functionality.

That said, I quite like my £380 (~$500) 15" laptop. Although it also gets quite hot, but I do like the extra horsepower it has over an Atom and wouldn't trade it in for something equally priced.

 

[formulav8]

Every netbook customers has brought in had the Atom cpu and that cpu is dirt slow with XP on it even when it had a decent amount of ram.

I definitely wouldn't get one unless it is strictly for email/web/word Processing stuff. Media/3d, ect.. would be a dog. I am not sure if the cpu can handle smooth dvd playback via a software encoder? Either way unless I am very mistaken the cpu won't handle anykind of hd playback, decode/encode on its own.

And i'm sure Intel wants to limit the sell of these cpu's since the last I heard they are selling them at a loss or at the very least right at the profit/loss line.

Thats just my 1 penny. I'm sure there are others with opinions opposite of mine. :laugh:


Jason