CASE PROFILE: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has always been ranked second in PC microprocessors with a market share of about 15 percent, compared to Intel, which had about 80 percent. Intel’s financial muscle allowed it to market its products aggressively and offer special incentives to wean away customers who did business with AMD. After Itanium, Intel’s processor had failed and Opteron was receiving favorable reviews the tables slowly began to turn. Opteron offered customers a smooth transition and promised a dramatic improvement in performance. After acquiring a new CEO, they have many ideas for the future and for their continued success.
General External Environment
Demographics:
The real median income of households in the United States rose by 1.1 percent between 2004 and 2005, from $45,817 to $46,326 and rose in the Northeast (2.9 percent) and in the West (1.5 percent). The last time median income of households experienced an annual increase was in 1999. Compared with 1967, the first year for which household income statistics are available, real median household income has increased 30.9 percent (Appendix 1).
The majority of households have personal computers and Internet access. In 2003, 70 million American households, or 62 percent, had one or more computers, up from 56 percent in 2001. In 1984, the proportion of households with a computer was 8 percent. The total number of households with a computer in 2003 was 69,912,000 (Appendix 2).
Sociocultural:
In the U.S. and even the world big companies, small businesses, and even personal computer users are all looking for the easiest way to update and integrate their new computer systems. With Opteron, their new product, they gave customers a smooth transition and promised them dramati ...