I just arrived back in San Jose after a long Memorial Day weekend near Nashville with my family. One planned event for the trip home was the replacement of my parents’ PC purchased from Dell in 1998. That Pentium II was hopelessly out-of-date and a severe bottleneck even for web browsing. My Dad wanted my “expert help” in selecting a replacement, so we decided to shop retail on Thursday. The results of that research saddened me.
My parents had four requirements. Three were explicit, and an implicit one added by me:
- Purchase system reasonably fast for their activities (web browsing, e-mail, MS Office use, digital photography).
- Purchase a system that would stay acceptably fast for several years even with a Vista upgrade (this requirement was added by me).
- Purchase a system with a 19″ monitor and a printer.
- Purchase system within $1200 budget.
In Gallatin, TN (about 30 miles east of Nashville) there are only a few retail outlets for a PC: Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot, and Walmart. I figured that if we hit them all we’d have a reasonable set of configurations and prices to choose from. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that HP dominated the selection at most stores. Worse than that, AMD dominated the selection everywhere.
About 80-90% of the systems available came with AMD processors. The choice of an Intel system always was limited to three configurations: a Celeron-based entry-level system, a Smithfield-based mainstream system, and a Presler-based “performance” system. None of the retail outlets would let the customer swap parts (CPU, video card, memory, etc.) so there were really only three Intel systems available. However, having totally dominated the shelves, there were perhaps a dozen AMD systems to choose from.
What did this mean? Well, first, my parents had to blow their budget to go multi-core with Intel. Second, they were forced into components that they didn’t need (additional memory, graphics card). Third, with purchasing an Intel system, they would have to walk out of the store knowing that they didn’t get exactly what they want.
None of these negative aspects were shared by the AMD platforms, of which there were choices aplenty. Furthermore, the psychological impact of a dominant AMD presence could be felt by every person in that store. My parents were wondering why I was pushing a system which seemed to be the “off-brand”. The sales reps pointed out that AMD was the market leader and Intel appeared to be dying so, AMD seemed to be the logical choice. 80% of the browsing customers in the store were first confronted by an AMD system.
Lastly, and this is where I really get pissed at our marketing teams, even I, an industry expert in PC performance, I had no ability to deduce processor performance from our branded names. Where AMD has intuitive names like “3800+” and “4400+” of which the latter sounds like it’s 15% faster, Intel has D820 and D930. I had to call a friend to Google those cryptic codes to find out that one was a Smithfield 2.8 and the other a Presler 3.0.
Ultimately I corralled my parents into a purchasing the Smithfield system. That blew their budget, but at least part of that was their insistence on the 19″ monitor. However, I know that they would have met all of their requirements if I had purchased the X2 3800+ on the same shelf. What a shame that Intel has abandoned this market. As the front-line for window-shoppers and impulse buyers, we’re losing a highly-visible market and creating a generation of AMD supporters.
Too bad ordering off the Dell Web site wasnt an option. Buying a computer from a retail store is a lot like letting a 300 pound man kick you square in the nuts. Id like to burn down ever CompUSA in the country.