AMD denies any prices drop

Was reacting to recent newspaper reports

Last week, some major newspapers reported that AMD has slashed
the prices of its microprocessors by as much as 40 percent. The news also quoted
that the move was a counter to the growing competition from Intel’s price
reduction sometime back. But when contacted, Sanjeev Keskar, Country Manager
(India), AMD, refuted the news.

He trashed the whole news and said, "There has been no
official price drops as quoted by some major newspapers last week. I think it
was a news wire message, which got distributed to all. No official comment
regarding the price has been declared as yet, by AMD. Had there been any, we
would have been informed about it. We did have a drop in prices, but it was at
the end of October. And the drop varied from entry-level products to high-end
products. It is all a mistake."

Even some major dealers of AMD had no inkling about the news and
were surprised when told about the same. PK Jain, Director, SMC International, a
major AMD dealer, said that there was no intimation about the dropping of
prices. "Till now, nothing has happened."

Commented Gagan Gupta, Director, Computer Infinite, "I too
have no idea about the drop in price of AMD processors. There has been no change
in the price platform. Maybe the price drop has been in the high-end CPUs or 64
bit CPUs." When informed that according to the newspapers the price drop
has been throughout, he said, "From the last two quarters, the price has
been stable and AMD as it is can’t implement price changes in India directly.
It all depends on the distributors."

Gupta was also of the opinion that even if AMD has slashed
prices, it can’t be in the wake of Intel’s similar move earlier. "I
personally don’t think so that AMD can slash the price because of Intel’s
move. AMD is gaining good popularity and is growing day by day."

Said Swarajya Gupta, Director, Digitronics, who sells HCL PCs
with AMD processor, "In the month of September, we received the HCL AMD
machines at 10 percent less price than the original amount. But we really don’t
know if the discount was from HCL’s side or AMD’s. Though, I have heard
about AMD slashing microprocessor prices, but till now we haven’t received any
official intimation."

Meanwhile, an official mail from Rahul Singh, Marketing Manager,
AMD India, quoted, "This is to inform you that there is no such price move
and that AMD does not pre-announce price changes. Our pricing strategy
represents a consistent approach to pricing. For latest prices of AMD processors
(for 1,000-unit quantities) you can visit http://www.amd.com/pricing."

Karma Negi

New Delhi, Dec 17