Thin is in, just in case you haven’t noticed. It’s hard not to, with Apple pushing its newly refreshed MacBook Air models to the masses and Intel counter-punching with an ultrabook form factor for Windows-based PCs (all the while serving both sides, just like a boxing promoter). Wondering where Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fits into the equation? It doesn’t.
Not by necessity, mind you, but by choice. AMD’s answer to ultrabooks is its ultrathin platform, which are thin-and-light notebooks built around either the chip maker’s E-Series accelerated processing units (APUs), otherwise known as Brazos 2.0, or Trinity (A-Series). Other than the processor, there aren’t any hard and fast rules for notebook makers to follow, as there are with ultrabooks.
That’s problem No. 1, and it’s not a minor one. AMD’s lack of criteria for what constitutes an ultrathin puts consumers in the position of having to do more research then they may like, or may even be capable of. Tech savvy individuals can glance a spec sheet and know right away the sum of the parts, but Joe Sweatsock probably can’t (or at least doesn’t want to).
The other problem for AMD is that it’s falling back to the same old strategy of competing on price, only it’s going to have a much tougher time undercutting Intel in this round. Intel is reportedly getting ready to meet with suppliers in Taiwan to hammer out a strategy to build lower cost ultrabooks, which currently sell for $800 and up, minus the occasional discount.
AMD, meanwhile, has talked about selling ultrathins in the $600 to $900 range, the same price range where Intel is headed. If your strategy is to win on price, and you’re not able to do that, then you need to bring something else to the table.
The last problem AMD faces is one of apathy, or at least that’s the way it looks. Intel last year created a $300 million fund ”to help drive innovation” in the ultrabook category and has been promoting the form factor ever since. The term “ultrabook” is fast becoming familiar in the mainstream. The same isn’t true of AMD, which isn’t pushing hundreds of millions of dollars into its ultrathin initiative, or even created a logo or a tagline.
It seems unlikely AMD would drop the ball and let Intel dominate the thin and light category, but then again, it’s played out like this before. Remember netbooks? AMD took a similar nonchalant approach to those, and by the time the chip designer made any kind of real push, netbooks were on their way out. For the sake of competition, let’s hope AMD starts approaching the ultrathin category with a little more urgency than it has up to this point.
Via extremetech
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