Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[rupert]

BUGGI

I have to take your word for it on the issue of mobiles - that AMD will have nothing comparable in mobiles to an Opteron design-leap in servers.

But I had thought that because AMD is starting from such low market-share and mind-share in mobiles any succesful effort it puts into that sector, even if it means only a 2-5% gain, will reflect very well on the bottom line, as well as gaining credibility for its other lines. Furthermore, even if its offerings are only equal in performance to Intel's, and only poor cousins in mind-share, AMD can compete on price, gaining revenues for itself and reducing Intel's margins.

I understand your argument very well about desktops but my main questions is about Intel's manufacturing and marketing capacity to fight the desktop space on price, thereby squeezing margins even further. AMD would be gaining more and more of less and less.

I wonder whether Intel would also survive better in the event of an economic slowdown which would weaken consumer demand for desktops? (I do understand the argument that Intel's cost structure is less well able to sustain lower prices than AMD's in an economic slowdown. But I'm not convinced. Intel has no debt and lots of cash. AMD has no free-cash and lots of debt).