Sales of Intel's Core 2 Duo chip seem slow take off

[Alpine]

Price, availability are hurting Intel in the pocket

AT INTEL'S SPRING IDF last March, the chip giant allowed some hardware review sites early access to test its upcoming Conroe processor. Later in July when the NDAs expired a truck load of reviews hit the Net.


What was clear from both events was that Intel had hit gold with its Core 2 Duo processor. Unfortunately, more than a month has passed since the official reviews, and for some, Core 2 Duo chips are still very thin on the ground.

When Newegg's top ten seller page was configured to show just processors, eight were from AMD. The two Intel offerings were Core 2 Duo chips - the 2MB devices, which were placed at eighth and ninth positions. The other three Core 2 Duo chips that Newegg sells are 4MB endowed, which start in price from $370 to over a thousand dollars. So those won't make an appearance on Newegg's top ten seller page anytime soon, as the most expensive chip on that list is $299.

It should be said that Intel's price list only shows five Core 2 devices available - four Duo chips and the Extreme Edition counterpart. Newegg's top ten leader board suggests that Intel really needs to launch more product offerings ASAP.

Newegg's cheapest AMD dual-core chip is $41 less expensive than its Intel Core 2 Duo counterpart. For the top models available the price difference is $292. So Intel's introduction of its performance leading Core 2 Duo chip has forced AMD to drop its prices drastically. That was very bad news for AMD, but good news for those bargain basement hunters.

Back in May when we last looked at Newegg's top ten seller page for processors, the 64-bit capable AMD Sempron 2800+ was the top seller. But things have been turned upside down since the Intel Core 2 Duo launch. No Semprons appear on Newegg's leader board. The new top selling champ is the AMD Athlon 64 3000+, which now looks very good value at only $66.

It's interesting to note that none of the chip giant's Netburst processors got on Newegg's top ten list. If that was replicated elsewhere that would suggest that in the channel at least a glut of such devices is growing.

TigerDirect's top ten leader board for its chips showed Intel ahead of AMD six to four. But AMD held the number one spot. All of the AMD chips were dual-core devices. Intel had two Core 2 Duo chips represented and the Extreme Edition device as well; two Pentium Ds and a solitary Pentium 4 made up the rest of the list.

In the UK, when PC Advisor tried to source Core 2 Duo systems for its October 06 magazine issue, "only Evesham was able to get us a fully working Conroe PC for this issue".

Will AMD make hay while the sun still shines? Intel's limited Core 2 offerings and its inability to get that product to where it's needed may give AMD a window of opportunity to reap fiscally before the Core 2 Duo becomes more generally available.

The INQuirer