Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[HailMary]

I don't see why people are still so caught up about this. The "dumb consumer" didn't seem to have too much trouble choosing the low-gigahertz Centrino over AMD's artificial modelhurts Athlons.

Yes, but Centrino had a billion dollar marketing push built around its wireless capabilities, not performance. AMD doesn't have that luxury. Most consumers look at numbers and compare them without knowing what they mean. The best AMD can do is modelhertz, and hope for a future where they can have a larger marketing push. I don't like modelhertz as a technologically smart consumer, but I like it as an AMD investor.

It is too bad AMD doesn't have a billion to burn right now. They could launch a huge marketing campaign on how their AMD64 processors block viruses and worms, and their competitors chips don't (yet - they better hurry). Even the everyday Joe knows about computer viruses. This could be huge for them, but it probably won't because they don't have the money, and they don't seem to have the marketing drive. Heck, just calling the processors something like 'Athlon 64 with VirusBlock' ought to gain a few customers.