While talking to one of the computer manufacturers recently, they shared that they have a hard time selling premium laptops when it’s powered by an AMD processor. The issue might have to deal with market perception of the brand.
When the topic was raised, a lot of my friends in the media thought it was due to the decade-long perception that AMD processors heat up so fast. Actually, that’s not a problem any more (but the notion still persists up to now) but more like consumer tolerance on pricing.
The bottom line — it’s very hard to sell the Phenom brand at top tier prices, unlike the Core i5 or i7 series. And to think Intel’s new CPU brands are way younger (now we know that marketing is such a huge deal when it comes to brands). So people are willing to shell out tens of thousands of pesos for laptops with the Core i5 and Core i7 brand but would not do the same if it were an Athlon or a Phenom.
However, there’s a sweet spot — for laptops at under Php30k price tag, people have no problem with AMD processors. In fact, laptops with Athlon or Phenom processors sell like hotcakes as long as they’re cheap. There’s a segment in the market that are actually AMD fans (they say it’s the TipidPC market and it makes sense since those are people who really look for value for their money).
Here’s my question — when was the last time you bought a laptop with an AMD processor in it?
erratum: i meant, assemble their own sets.