I'm a little worried that AMD is now exposed because they now have all their eggs in one basket. I realize that flash was dragging them down, but I feel that Intel couldn't put on the pressure forever and AMD could have come up with a superior solution like they have with Opteron.
Flash is much less dependent on public perception and therefore was insulated from the kind of marketing forces that Intel has become successful at employing against AMD for years. Now this is lost. I also think it was the only card Intel had left to play and retaliated for the kind of success Opteron had.
Certainly, there had to be some point, were Operteron sales would have overcome Spansion losses. At this point AMD could have put their eyes back on the falsh "ball". I would have hoped AMD could have made superior and innovative flash offerings that still would have been attractive regardless of Intel's pricing.
A flash product of superior quality could have been a design enabler in an arena that has been stagnant for a little while now(the cell phone space is becoming a filled with comodity products with the exception of the "gotta have it" Razr and a few other models). Certainly cell manufactures want to compete again and AMD could have been their serum with a killer offering. What the heck happened to mirrorbit anyway? The revolution never came, but I'm sure it was feasible. Resource starved, cost cutting killed innovation, What?
I have been an AMD supporter since '98 and I remember when flash saved their rump many times while they got their act together in the processor space. It leaves me cold that all of their acquisitions, intended to make AMD flash superior, will not be realized. It was money wasted. Now AMD must rely on superior design, execution AND marketing more than ever in a hyper competitive processor space that is gaining more and more competition. A lack of diversification is bad. I'm still bullish but very cautious as wall street's jubilation will peter out in the next few weeks and people will wait with baited breath over the next quarter.
With Spansion out of the way, Intel can increase flash pricing, and subsidize cratering the prices of their processor offerings and hurt AMD yet again. I doubt current Intel flash pricing is in any longterm contracts. Their customers are too desperate and will take cheap flash as long as it is available. Up goes the flash prices, down go Intel's chip prices and so go AMD's margins. Is this not a possibility? PLEASE tell me I am wrong!
Tim
AI
