AMD Q3 Results

[mrmt]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-16/amd-sales-may-miss-estimates-as-intel-gains-pc-orders.html

(...)

Illustrating what AMD is up against, Intel took in 94.7 percent of the revenue in the PC processor market in the second quarter, while AMD garnered 5.2 percent, according to market researcher IDC. Intel’s chips powered 84 percent of desktop units shipped and 88 percent of laptops. By all those measures, AMD lost ground to its larger rival.

 

[Phynaz]

Read had bet unsuccessfully that Intel wasn’t interested in the market for processors used in cheaper laptops, where AMD had been relatively successful

Explains why ASP went up for notebook CPUs for AMD. sell fewer inexpensive CPUs and your ASP goes up while your volume goes down.

It's just staggering to see AMD down to 5% revenue share. I don't know how you dig yourself out of a hole that deep.

 

[krumme]

And 3/4 of this forum thinks all this is good news. Self inflicting pain. So idiotic its unbelievable.

 

[positivedoppler]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-16/amd-sales-may-miss-estimates-as-intel-gains-pc-orders.html

(...)

Illustrating what AMD is up against, Intel took in 94.7 percent of the revenue in the PC processor market in the second quarter, while AMD garnered 5.2 percent, according to market researcher IDC. Intel’s chips powered 84 percent of desktop units shipped and 88 percent of laptops. By all those measures, AMD lost ground to its larger rival.

My first reaction when I saw the miss and the dreadful 4th quarter earning was sucks for AMD. But the conference call to me slowly paints a rosier picture.

We've met our goal to double our commercial client design wins from last year, and are pleased with the initial progress we are making to build a richer mix in our PC business. New commercial client offerings from Dell, HP, Lenovo have started ramping, resulting in approximately a 50% increase in our commercial APU shipments from the second quarter.
We also improved our notebook APU mix in the quarter, as our Kaveri processors ramped in mobile design wins and our higher-end mobile processor unit shipments increased nearly 50% from the second quarter. Mobile discrete GPU unit shipments also increased from the second quarter, as new design wins entered production.


I'm starting to get a better picture of how AMD lead by Read and Lisa's approach has been. Priorities are Business market first, follow by mobile, then consumer APUs. Embedded will be hitting 20 nm in 2015 while consumer CPU will still be in 28 nm. Zen will give server market priority first so it sucks a bit if you've been an AMD diehard fan and been waiting for a FX refresh.
http://wccftech.com/amds-generation...-debut-2016-dense-server-market-top-priority/

So while I think overall they might have rapidly eroded their desktop shares in the consumer space, their long term strategy is to target the more stable business market and they're willing to reallocate resource, let the consumer desktop market bleed some more, and sacrifice 3rd and 4th quarter earning to make it happen.

I think the 3rd Quarter miss is for two reason.

1. The gradual irrelevance of their FX line which really makes them an almost none existent player in the enthusiast desktop market at this point. Yes I know Kaveri is awesome if you happen to want to integrated graphics or have something that requires HSA, but I don't think that small market is picking up rapidly enough to make up for the gigantic void left by the neglect in their FX line. Remember, once upon a time high performance desktop part was AMD's highest source of revenue.

2. Bitcoin used video card market. They pretty much admitted to this in the conference call without directly admitting to it. It's a double edge sword I suppose. The Bitcoin/Litecoin market lite up their 3rd and 4th quarter sale last year and give investors false hope that their turnaround was going better than expected.

Now as for the 4th quarter lousy forecast, here's what I suspect.

1. No answer to Maxwell. While Nvidia invested heavily to give their 28 nm product one last performance boost, AMD just kind let it go with minor improvements to appease the business market, aka, Apple with the m295X. Now this might be a good thing for AMD if it means they are in better position to release a 20nm gpu ahead of Nvidia in 2015.

2. Last quarter of no high performance CPU left by the FX void and one quarter before Carrizo debuts.


So if my assumption are correct on why Quarter 3 and 4 are bad, it's possible that 2015 is shaping up to be the first real quarter of success from their 3 years of turnaround plan. Here are the reasons.

1. Embedded market seems to be gaining traction for AMD. Nvidia and Intel has been in this market for awhile now and it's a very stable source of revenue. More importantly for AMD, it allows them to very cheaply reuse IP and that's probably the whole reason behind project Skybridge. Lisa mention her goal is 1-2 semi custom wins/year. If they can repeat what they just announced this year again in 2015, they should be in really good position business-wise. On top of the existing contract being 3 years 1 billion, Lisa did mention what she liked about them is that they are stickies. Once you're in it's long term. My interpretation to that is they would be in excellent position to renew that contract another 3 years once it's up.

2. Graphics should pick up too. The popular rumor is that Pirate Island will be 1st quarter of 2015 in 20nm and HBM. Nvidia even if they manage to release maxwell in 20 nm also, should have no response to HBM until 2016. I've even heard rumor that AMD plans on paper launching Pirate Island December of 2014.

3. Carrizo. It just needs to be good enough for them to gain some market share in the business sector. At 28 nm if they can offer the advertised performance numbers, they should be easily able to gain shares in the business market. Everyone seems to think lighter, more powerful, more energy efficient is key to the business market. That's not the case. Cost is a huge factor and not every business is going to opt for the premium of the 14nm Intel part. A 15 watt cpu laptop that can load jpeg like an aka47 should get them some attention.

So despite the bad earning call and the horrible 4th quarter forecast, I don't view it as a bad thing because it really does seem like AMD is setting themselves up for success down the road and we're really beginning to see tangible success at the end of their tunnel.

Now here is the BIG I don't like and this is huge. If AMD really was in a great position for 2015, why the big layoff and a very targeted one at that too at their consumer CPU and GPU division. This leads me to believe that either 1, AMD does not believe Carrizo will bring them any business market improvement over Kaveri or 2, AMD believes 20nm Pirate Island will slip or Nvidia will have an equally good or better answer to match or top or 3, the complete gutting of all resources none engineering related of their FX line since it's not due for a refresh for at least another year.

I hope for AMD's sake the reason is 3, the gutting of their FX line staff because if it's either Carrizo not being as good as advertise or Pirate Island not being able to give AMD an advantage, 2015 will shape up to be a pretty lousy year also.

 

[positivedoppler]

Read had bet unsuccessfully that Intel wasn’t interested in the market for processors used in cheaper laptops, where AMD had been relatively successful, said Kevin Cassidy, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

That's a lousy assessment. It wasn't a bet by Read, it was the only card AMD had at the time. AMD being bottom feeders was not betting and anticipating but instead reacting to Intel's market move. AMD until they move on from Faildozer does not have a high end product to match Intel in the high end, thus, they are stuck in the low end not because they want to, because that's the only product they have. Lisa stated during the conference call their higher end mobile Kaveri(really mid level product compared to Intel's product stack) sales increased by 50%.This is a smart business move I think.

For the past 3 years while AMD floundered around with Faildozer and lost all the mid to high end sales. The Cat core did alright in the netbook area, but as we know netbooks slowly died off but manufacturers still used the low end cats and atoms to make cheapbooks and all in ones. Intel really wasn't paying attention to the low end until the assault by mobile which forced them to beef up their ATOM engines. Now the low end is flooded with cheap celerons and atoms that the cat core had to compete with. I don't think Intel was targeting the low end to drive AMD out of business, it was just a consequence of R&D as Intel tackled ARM.

AMD's reaction is if your going corner us in the low end as well, we might as well reallocate our resource and go back to the mid level product. This is a smart move. I don't think Intel wants to compete against itself in the low end and cannibalize it's own higher tier product with low end cpus that offer good enough performance. You'll notice recently AMD is replacing their cat cores with Carrizo at the end of the year. This is a direct statement to Intel, "Fine you want the low end, it's all yours" Have fun cannibalizing your own high ends with low end atoms. We'll do what we can to win mid level silicon. You're move Intel.

I should add that Intel should be watching AMD's exit out of the cat core very carefully and thinking very carefully about realigning their own business model. Ever wonder why AMD never tackled the Chrome market that has been doing exceptionally well for Google? I suspect this is the reason, they're going to give Intel time to think about it. Intel is killing themselves in the long run by supporting Chrome. It's low end low margin cheaptop product that is slowly eroding Microsoft's sales of windows. The more it gains traction, the more it's a danger to the Intel Window duopoly. It's a market that doesn't emphasize cpu computing power and eats away from Intel's sale of higher end core cpus. If Intel keeps feeding it, they may not be able to step away from it and be permanently screwed. Chrome already supports ARM and even if Intel elects to move away from it, several arm maker can more than fill in the void. It's a threat to Microsoft and as a result it's a threat to Intel. Despite Intel's record sales, AMD has pretty much conceded the entire low end market including Chrome to Intel almost as a dare to Intel, "Ok think about what you're doing to yourself and lets see how long you want to stay here"

 

[jpiniero]

On the lousy forecast, I remember last year that the chips for the consoles for the Christmas shopping season were delivered in the 3Q and not early 4Q. Between that and possibly the two getting a price cut would easily explain things.

 

[mrmt]

Now here is the BIG I don't like and this is huge. If AMD really was in a great position for 2015, why the big layoff and a very targeted one at that too at their consumer CPU and GPU division. This leads me to believe that either 1, AMD does not believe Carrizo will bring them any business market improvement over Kaveri or 2, AMD believes 20nm Pirate Island will slip or Nvidia will have an equally good or better answer to match or top or 3, the complete gutting of all resources none engineering related of their FX line since it's not due for a refresh for at least another year.

That's interesting, despite being extremely optimistic about AMD you grasped that their actions didn't match the upbeat talk in the Q&A. The truth is that the strong points you mentioned aren't as strong as they think it is, the reasons are just of the opposite of what you think it is AMD strengths

Kaveri, for example, is a very bad product for AMD, it has twice the size of its competitors, consumes more power and is less efficient. It's a no go for the mobile market and a no go for desktops too. Carrizo is the latest of the unmitigated failure to reach the market and won't change much of the family weaknesses, but it will have to face much improved 14nm chips for the most part of its life. I doubt that there will be much market share to Carrizo around Q315. GPUs, AMD is pretty much toast there, because Nvidia is getting most of the mobile sales and desktop sales.

But... the cuts are really the icing on the cake here. The only reason for AMD to cut that deep their sales and marketing forces is if they expect their sales to tank in channels that need active sales and marketing teams, and this is the consumer market. FWIW I think AMD is aiming to be cash neutral operating with levels around 1.1 billion in revenues and gross margin hovering slightly above 30%, a condition far more stringent than today's. I think that's their target for 2015, and that will imply further cuts around Q2 or Q315.

 

[mrmt]

Now here is the BIG I don't like and this is huge. If AMD really was in a great position for 2015, why the big layoff and a very targeted one at that too at their consumer CPU and GPU division. This leads me to believe that either 1, AMD does not believe Carrizo will bring them any business market improvement over Kaveri or 2, AMD believes 20nm Pirate Island will slip or Nvidia will have an equally good or better answer to match or top or 3, the complete gutting of all resources none engineering related of their FX line since it's not due for a refresh for at least another year.

That's interesting, despite being extremely optimistic about AMD you grasped that their actions didn't match the upbeat talk in the Q&A. The truth is that the strong points you mentioned aren't as strong as they think it is, the reasons are just of the opposite of what you think it is AMD strengths

Kaveri, for example, is a very bad product for AMD, it has twice the size of its competitors, consumes more power and is less efficient. It's a no go for the mobile market and a no go for desktops too. Carrizo is the latest of the unmitigated failure to reach the market and won't change much of the family weaknesses, but it will have to face much improved 14nm chips for the most part of its life. I doubt that there will be much market share to Carrizo around Q315. GPUs, AMD is pretty much toast there, because Nvidia is getting most of the mobile sales and desktop sales.

But... the cuts are really the icing on the cake here. The only reason for AMD to cut that deep their sales and marketing forces is if they expect their sales to tank in channels that need active sales and marketing teams, and this is the consumer market. FWIW I think AMD is aiming to be cash neutral operating with levels around 1.1 billion in revenues and gross margin hovering slightly above 30%, a condition far more stringent than today's. I think that's their target for 2015, and that will imply further cuts around Q2 or Q315.

Forget about Intel not endorsing the Chromebook. If they don't, we'll soon see ARM chrome books and that wouldn't make Intel happy at all. The industry is shifting towards high volume, lower ASP parts, it's not a shift Intel can control, but it is something they can adapt and so far they are doing just that. AMD is just collateral damage in the fight between ARM and Intel, they have no choice except get out of the way, and that's the task of the new management under Su.

 

[mrmt]

Explains why ASP went up for notebook CPUs for AMD. sell fewer inexpensive CPUs and your ASP goes up while your volume goes down.

It's just staggering to see AMD down to 5% revenue share. I don't know how you dig yourself out of a hole that deep.

Yeah, at least the new CEO was a little more forthcoming to admit that they have problems in the consumer market, but I'd like her to be forthcoming enough to admit that they have been also losing share to Intel on a quarterly basis.

 

[positivedoppler]

.

Forget about Intel not endorsing the Chromebook. If they don't, we'll soon see ARM chrome books and that wouldn't make Intel happy at all. The industry is shifting towards high volume, lower ASP parts, it's not a shift Intel can control, but it is something they can adapt and so far they are doing just that. AMD is just collateral damage in the fight between ARM and Intel, they have no choice except get out of the way, and that's the task of the new management under Su.

Remember last year when we heard a whole bunch of talk from Intel trying to get into Android? I think they quickly realized what they were doing to themselves in the long run and refocus on helping Windows in tablets. There's pretty much no Intel andriods on sale on despite the contra program.

Chrome is a OS right now that targets academia and has a very good potential of eventually filtering up to businesses. It is a real threat to Window's and an equal long term threat to Intel since it supports ARM. I think Intel needs to quickly realize the grave their digging themselves with their support for cheap Chromebooks. Today academia is shifting their purchase to Chromebooks and it won't take much for businesses to do the same. The next step would be for cheap ARMS to completely muscle out Intel in the Chrome market too. Chrome is ARMS entrance into the PC world and right now Intel is speeding up the process. Intel needs to realize this quickly and throw their entire support behind Windows.

Intel and Microsoft are partners in crime. If either ditch the other it will spell an end to their dominance. Microsoft probably realized this too and quickly ditched their Window's arm support.

 

[Arachnotronic]

That's interesting, despite being extremely optimistic about AMD you grasped that their actions didn't match the upbeat talk in the Q&A. The truth is that the strong points you mentioned aren't as strong as they think it is, the reasons are just of the opposite of what you think it is AMD strengths

Kaveri, for example, is a very bad product for AMD, it has twice the size of its competitors, consumes more power and is less efficient. It's a no go for the mobile market and a no go for desktops too. Carrizo is the latest of the unmitigated failure to reach the market and won't change much of the family weaknesses, but it will have to face much improved 14nm chips for the most part of its life. I doubt that there will be much market share to Carrizo around Q315. GPUs, AMD is pretty much toast there, because Nvidia is getting most of the mobile sales and desktop sales.

But... the cuts are really the icing on the cake here. The only reason for AMD to cut that deep their sales and marketing forces is if they expect their sales to tank in channels that need active sales and marketing teams, and this is the consumer market. FWIW I think AMD is aiming to be cash neutral operating with levels around 1.1 billion in revenues and gross margin hovering slightly above 30%, a condition far more stringent than today's. I think that's their target for 2015, and that will imply further cuts around Q2 or Q315.

Forget about Intel not endorsing the Chromebook. If they don't, we'll soon see ARM chrome books and that wouldn't make Intel happy at all. The industry is shifting towards high volume, lower ASP parts, it's not a shift Intel can control, but it is something they can adapt and so far they are doing just that. AMD is just collateral damage in the fight between ARM and Intel, they have no choice except get out of the way, and that's the task of the new management under Su.

Intel has been pushing pretty hard in Chrome, so it's funny to see people think that Intel is ignoring this market.

Even Samsung just announced a Chromebook using Bay Trail.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/17/6992981/samsung-intel-chromebook-2-announced-pricing-release-date

 

[Lonyo]

Funnily AMD was GAAP profitable for Q3 2014 which is the first in a long long time. The last few quarters they were only profitable in Non GAAP results and had losses in GAAP results. The big hurt came in Q4 projections which were down 13% (around USD 1.25 billion). Embedded,enterprise and Semi custom will be down as console APU shipments go down but so will Computing and Graphics. thats a huge problem for an already bleeding Computing and Graphics division.

GAAP or non-GAAP profitability is meaningless.
AMD only needs to be cashflow positive right now, without relying on current liabilities to give them credit lines.

Profit doesn't matter when you are low on cash and in a precarious position.

Also GAAP profit or loss is meaningless when you consider the restructuring which messes things up, assuming US GAAP is broadly similar to other international standards.

 

[mrmt]

Chrome is a OS right now that targets academia and has a very good potential of eventually filtering up to businesses. It is a real threat to Window's and an equal long term threat to Intel since it supports ARM.

That ship has sailed already. Instead of defending MSFT strategy, Intel is bringing their cost structure on par with ARM makers (which are having to build a heavier cost structure to compete on new markets) and beat them in their own game. The heavy weights of the ARM camp won't fight bay trail on the top, but Core itself. And the cheap ARM markers will face SoFIA, which should be cheap enough to compete with most ARM offers.

 

[positivedoppler]

.

Kaveri, for example, is a very bad product for AMD, it has twice the size of its competitors, consumes more power and is less efficient. It's a no go for the mobile market and a no go for desktops too. Carrizo is the latest of the unmitigated failure to reach the market and won't change much of the family weaknesses, but it will have to face much improved 14nm chips for the most part of its life. I doubt that there will be much market share to Carrizo around Q315.

I don't think it's as clear cut as you think. If AMD can get their power down to 15 watts, they are in very good position regardless of what Intel may achieve with 14 nm. I think Intel overshot their goal in the desperation to get into Mobile. Ultrabook were a good idea, but further shrinking of power usage below 15 watts is view as an utter waste in the business sector given the price premium. There's very little gain in productivity for a laptop to go from a 4-5 hour battery life to 10 hour battery life.

For the most part(there's always exceptions I know) most big businesses don't care about tablets. It's view as a luxury item that will not in the foreseeable future be approved for mass use. There will not be much of an market in business for convertibles.

 

[positivedoppler]

Intel has been pushing pretty hard in Chrome, so it's funny to see people think that Intel is ignoring this market.

Even Samsung just announced a Chromebook using Bay Trail.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/17/6992981/samsung-intel-chromebook-2-announced-pricing-release-date

I know they are. Which is why it's strange watching Intel dig its own grave in exchange for short term gain.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I know they are. Which is why it's strange watching Intel dig its own grave.

If Intel doesn't attack this market, somebody else will.

By the way, I don't know how much I buy this "mix shift down" argument. People typically buy to their means, so it's not likely that anybody who normally buys $700 PCs with Core i5 processors will suddenly buy $199 Chromebooks as their primary systems.

Further, PC vendors like to make money too, so they will put the nicer components on the more expensive systems with the more expensive Core processors.

I think this view that Intel is "digging its own grave" if it sells appropriate, cheap-to-build chips into low-cost systems is too simplistic, and I think Intel itself feared this which is why Atom was so woefully under-powered until recently (and I think there is much more room for improvement).

 

[Arachnotronic]

Remember last year when we heard a whole bunch of talk from Intel trying to get into Android? I think they quickly realized what they were doing to themselves in the long run and refocus on helping Windows in tablets. There's pretty much no Intel andriods on sale on despite the contra program.

Chrome is a OS right now that targets academia and has a very good potential of eventually filtering up to businesses. It is a real threat to Window's and an equal long term threat to Intel since it supports ARM. I think Intel needs to quickly realize the grave their digging themselves with their support for cheap Chromebooks. Today academia is shifting their purchase to Chromebooks and it won't take much for businesses to do the same. The next step would be for cheap ARMS to completely muscle out Intel in the Chrome market too. Chrome is ARMS entrance into the PC world and right now Intel is speeding up the process. Intel needs to realize this quickly and throw their entire support behind Windows.

Intel and Microsoft are partners in crime. If either ditch the other it will spell an end to their dominance. Microsoft probably realized this too and quickly ditched their Window's arm support.

~80% of Intel's tablet chip shipments are going into Android devices, per Intel on numerous occasions.

 

[witeken]

~80% of Intel's tablet chip shipments are going into Android devices, per Intel on numerous occasions.

Which SoCs and devices are that actually? I mostly see Bay Trail + Windows reviews.

 

[positivedoppler]

If Intel doesn't attack this market, somebody else will.

By the way, I don't know how much I buy this "mix shift down" argument. People typically buy to their means, so it's not likely that anybody who normally buys $700 PCs with Core i5 processors will suddenly buy $199 Chromebooks as their primary systems.

Further, PC vendors like to make money too, so they will put the nicer components on the more expensive systems with the more expensive Core processors.

I think this view that Intel is "digging its own grave" if it sells appropriate, cheap-to-build chips into low-cost systems is too simplistic, and I think Intel itself feared this which is why Atom was so woefully under-powered until recently (and I think there is much more room for improvement).

I'm talking about just the business segment here. Remember Big Business does not care about Brand. They care about the cheapest product possible that is reliable enough to get the job done. Everything is about the bottom line. If Intel helps usher an era in which a $250 chromebook is enough for all the typical business need, then there is absolutely no reason to buy a $700 ultrabook. So absolutely when it comes to business procurement, if there's a chance to go from a $700 laptop to a $200 laptop and still provide all your needs, you absolutely take it.

I'm not going to go into which big corporations I've worked for or worked with, but I've seen enough to understand the procurement attitude across the board. Computer refreshes are increasingly getting drawn out because it's being seen that the previous generation of laptops and PCs are more then capable of running the current generation of office suits. The current generation of business buys are driven by two things. 1. End of XP support. 2. Solid State hard drives.

I'll add that I know enough business folks who are still holding on to their 7 year old laptop against the will of IT because they see no reason to upgrade.

 

[positivedoppler]

~80% of Intel's tablet chip shipments are going into Android devices, per Intel on numerous occasions.

That makes this even more amusing. Apple will continue to use their own chips and Samsung prefers to do the same. The market for high end tablets are dominated by Apple and Samsung. If Intel wants to break into the tablet market, their margin will be to compete against a bunch of cheap low margin sub $200 tablets. They're be doing this while crippling Microsoft who is their bread and butter.

I will apologize to everyone for dragging this into a Intel business thread. I've only done so because I believe AMD is in a watch Intel and react mode to minimize their exposure to competition. This will be my last comment regarding this in which I voice that it is merely my opinion that Intel is shooting itself in the foot 2+ years down the line by supporting Chrome for short term gain. For every $250 chromebook purchased in which Intel might make $20-30 on, it's a $700 notebook not purchased in which Intel might have made a few hundred on.

To go back on topic, I think there's a chance that AMD is either about to take off or is in serious trouble. Once the layoffs are revealed, it will paint a much cleaner picture for us.

 

[Arachnotronic]

That makes this even more amusing. Apple will continue to use their own chips and Samsung prefers to do the same. The market for high end tablets are dominated by Apple and Samsung. If Intel wants to break into the tablet market, their margin will be to compete against a bunch of cheap low margin sub $200 tablets. They're be doing this while crippling Microsoft who is their bread and butter.

Again, don't really understand what device margin for OEMs has to do with CPU margin...

Intel's PC chips command ~60% gross margin, yet the majority of PCs sold with Intel chips are very low margin.

I think you are making the mistake of assuming that components in a low margin device are necessarily low margin.

 

[mrmt]

I don't think it's as clear cut as you think. If AMD can get their power down to 15 watts, they are in very good position regardless of what Intel may achieve with 14 nm.

AMD already can sell 15W chips, the problem is that these chips don't pack enough performance and don't pack enough efficiency to hold any value on the market. Simply put, AMD has to sell a die twice the size of Intel, a chip that consumes more power and is less efficient than Intel comparable chips for less money than Intel. That's not a sustainable proposition, and given that AMD is already on the last limit of gross margins, and 14nm chips will further expand Intel advantages (smaller die, more efficient architecture, less power consumption), I don't think there will be any value proposition left for AMD to sell with the big OEMs. It's game over for them.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Intel is smart to get into chromebooks. If they ignore them, they will not go away. Personally, I dont see the appeal of them, but apparently a lot of people do.

 

[Lonyo]

~80% of Intel's tablet chip shipments are going into Android devices, per Intel on numerous occasions.

There's a quote from April 2014 stating 80-90%, but now Microsoft have started enabling super cheap Windows tablets I wonder if it's changed at all.
6 months ago there weren't the glut of sub $200 Windows/Intel tablets available that are on the market now.

Found a Q3 2014 transcript which says about 80%, but it doesn't seem like something they are tracking super closely.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/1291...eport-q3-2014-conference-call-transcript.html

 

[frozentundra123456]

That makes this even more amusing. Apple will continue to use their own chips and Samsung prefers to do the same. The market for high end tablets are dominated by Apple and Samsung. If Intel wants to break into the tablet market, their margin will be to compete against a bunch of cheap low margin sub $200 tablets. They're be doing this while crippling Microsoft who is their bread and butter.

I will apologize to everyone for dragging this into a Intel business thread. I've only done so because I believe AMD is in a watch Intel and react mode to minimize their exposure to competition. This will be my last comment regarding this in which I voice that it is merely my opinion that Intel is shooting itself in the foot 2+ years down the line by supporting Chrome for short term gain. For every $250 chromebook purchased in which Intel might make $20-30 on, it's a $700 notebook not purchased in which Intel might have made a few hundred on.

To go back on topic, I think there's a chance that AMD is either about to take off or is in serious trouble. Once the layoffs are revealed, it will paint a much cleaner picture for us.

I understand what you are saying, but I think chromebooks and higher end laptops/ultra books are a different market. If Intel wasn't in chrome books, that would not lead to more sales of expensive models, but just to more sales of ARM chrome books. I think this is even more true now that K1 is getting into chrome books an offering a higher performing alternative to Intel.