Sour Grapes! not...

The article I wrote on Friday received over 30,000 unique visits in less than 24 hours and it continues to get hammered. I have received numerous emails from all over the map, the majority of them supporting my position.

There are basically 3 types of email I received, the first type (and majority) being supporters agreeing with my position. The second type are those who constantly compare AMD’s current offerings with Intel’s future offerings – how is that even a reasonable argument? The third type of email comes from those who are genuinely interested in the technology and are speculating either way. I respect all opinions, as you can see by the comments on my blog I don’t censor anyone.

It’s rare that someone in the industry speaks out in a forum such as this. I learned from Mark Cuban that there’s nothing wrong with being vocal – however I can’t afford to make comments that will jeopardize my company in any way. Therefore everything I say is fully researched before I hit the keyboard.

Last year I called out ATi for their poor execution, and for using our name on a launch list on a product that we had yet to see. People in the industry were shocked, and I was accused of throwing sour grapes at ATi by a few. All of my competitors stayed quiet, while I went out on a limb and risked any chance of building a relationship with ATi. Well, clearly I told the truth as even ATi admitted to missing multiple targets.

What transpired from this? A stronger ATi (though still battered and bruised), and a better relationship between ATi and Voodoo. We are now working with their next generation products and it’s no secret that we’re very impressed by them.

My point is, I am a fan of fantastic technology – I am not a fan-boy, and as anyone who works closely with bleeding edge technology will tell you, my sweeping statements about are pretty accurate. Over a year ago I was quoted as saying BTX was doomed to fail. I also felt the same about Itanium, and a number of other unrelated products. I'm not a crystal ball, I mean we all make mistakes - but most of this stuff is pretty black and white.

I want to reiterate that it’s not personal, though many of my comments over the last year have been critical of Intel’s marketing and product execution strategy; everything I say is based on facts and research.

I feel it would be doing a disservice to our customers to sell them such expensive machines without offering them the best of class technology. In fact, we were the first system builder to use the Pentium M in a desktop – which we switched over to Turion 64 a few months later.

In other words, if the technology doesn’t meet our standards, we won’t actively promote it as leading edge. You will certainly find lots of support for Intel Centrino platforms on our site, just as you will find support for AMD Turion 64, Athlon 64, Opteron 64, and of course the mack daddy of all CPU’s – Athlon FX. The same goes with ATi and NVIDIA, if they miss the mark, we have no choice but to pull their products or help guide them to building better products.

In response to those people who want to compare yet to be released Intel technology with current generation AMD. (ie: Core Duo on the desktop against AMD Athlon 64) I suppose it’s good for AMD, considering their previous generation will still hold it’s own against Intel’s “next generation 32 bit” technology. Unfortunately for the mass market Core Duo is still a month or two away (unless you buy an Apple).

Technology aside, AMD is an easy company to work with. Speak with anyone in the industry and they will tell you that the corporate culture at AMD makes you want them to succeed. Doing business with them is a breeze, and it’s interesting to see them in a position where they can finally call the shots.

Years ago I felt the same about Intel, their channel strategy was clear and concise, but somewhere along the line they lost the plot. Now I’m more confused than ever, through all the glamour and glitz I still don’t know wth VIIV is all about – and I know I’m not the only one. My Intel rep is a great guy, I've known him for years, but even he wasn't too clear on the VIIV strategy last year. In fairness to him, no one at the Intel booth at CES was clear on VIIV, they all had something different to say. My gut tells me “VIIV” might go down a similar path as “BTX” – hard to say at this point, it’s far too young to speculate.

I can also publicly say that I do NOT own a dime of AMD, Intel, ATi or Nvidia stock. I don't actually trade stocks in my field - perhaps I should :) but I haven't really been active in tech stocks at all. I am heavily vested in my own company, and you'll probably read more about some of the ventures I'm working on in the future.

To the handful of you who are wondering if its sour grapes, I suggest that you do your research. It might also help your case if you post or email me with a real identity so you have some credibility.

Lastly, visit our website at http://www.voodoopc.com/, and see the caliber of our product line. You might then understand my position …

This article was a follow up of a previous article I wrote over here.