Article: AMD's Mobile Strategy
By: Gabriele Svelto (gabriele.svelto.delete@this.gmail.com), December 15, 2011 11:55 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Daniel Bizo (fejenagy@gmail.com) on 12/15/11 wrote:
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>Why would anyone buy a non-Windows tablet if you have the same experience as on
>your PC?
Until now people have been buying smartphones and tablets by the millions and none of them even vaguely resembles to what a Windows PC looks like. From my perspective the question you should be asking yourself is: why would anyone buy a Windows tablet?
>Hopefully, with easy and fast data synchronization in the future. Over time,
>Intel and Microsoft may even try to completely assimilate the tablet form factor
>into the fabric of the PC borg ship with rejuvenated convertible/hybrid tablet PC
>designs -- which is something long overdue and should have happened years ago, basically.
That would not work for a simple reason: price. Both Intel and Microsoft are used to pretty high margins in their main markets, the new form-factors have significantly lower ASPs and margins for both hardware and software (and often different revenue models too). See how Microsoft had to impose an artificial price on Android to even make Windows 7 Mobile remotely competitive with it. A similar argument applies to Intel: nobody is going to spend 250$ on a SoC for a tablet, 50$ would pretty much count as extremely high-end with most of the tablet SoCs costing significantly less than that. So the question is: would Intel be able to justify their fab and R&D costs with similar ASPs? My guess is no which is why Intel (and AMD/nVidia too) need to keep the PC market alive and kicking.
---------------------------
>Why would anyone buy a non-Windows tablet if you have the same experience as on
>your PC?
Until now people have been buying smartphones and tablets by the millions and none of them even vaguely resembles to what a Windows PC looks like. From my perspective the question you should be asking yourself is: why would anyone buy a Windows tablet?
>Hopefully, with easy and fast data synchronization in the future. Over time,
>Intel and Microsoft may even try to completely assimilate the tablet form factor
>into the fabric of the PC borg ship with rejuvenated convertible/hybrid tablet PC
>designs -- which is something long overdue and should have happened years ago, basically.
That would not work for a simple reason: price. Both Intel and Microsoft are used to pretty high margins in their main markets, the new form-factors have significantly lower ASPs and margins for both hardware and software (and often different revenue models too). See how Microsoft had to impose an artificial price on Android to even make Windows 7 Mobile remotely competitive with it. A similar argument applies to Intel: nobody is going to spend 250$ on a SoC for a tablet, 50$ would pretty much count as extremely high-end with most of the tablet SoCs costing significantly less than that. So the question is: would Intel be able to justify their fab and R&D costs with similar ASPs? My guess is no which is why Intel (and AMD/nVidia too) need to keep the PC market alive and kicking.
