AMD will launch a pricing campaign later this month, covering the full range of its product line, in head-to-head rivalry with Intel, which is expected to lower the prices for its processors in July, according to sources with motherboard makers.
After actively talking to motherboard makers in search of ways to counter Intel's price cuts, AMD has come up with a new pricing solution, despite tight production capacity and possible erosion of its profits, the sources said.
The sources indicated that AMD will cut the prices for four models in its Athlon 64 single-core CPU series by 20-30% in mid June. On July 24, AMD will reduce the prices for its Athlon 64x2 dual-core CPUs by 25-50%, and its low-end single-core Sempron series will see a 10-15% cut in prices, according to the sources.
Intel is expected to offer significant price reductions for its Celeron, Pentium 4 and Pentium D series when it launches its desktop Core2 Duo (Conroe) processors next month. DigiTimes reported these price cuts on May 26.
The sources pointed out that as AMD's K8L series, a quad-core upgrade of its K8 architecture, will not be available until 2007, its AM2 series would be caught between the higher-performance Conroe and the lower-priced Pentium D if AMD did not adopt a new pricing strategy. AMD's Sempron would also have problems competing with Intel's Celeron.
AMD will almost halve the prices for its Athlon 64x32 3800+ to US$152-161, compared to the US$163 that Intel plans for its Pentium D 945, the sources said, citing one example in AMD's pricing plan.
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