To a very large portion of America AMD might as well be ‘brand-X’ because the reality is, as most have already stated, AMD is just an off brand to the average Joe walking the street.
For as much as I love computers and O\C I’ve come to realize something, 4 – 5 years ago when everyone was freaking out over computers taking jobs away from factory works and office workers (most of whom entered the job market 20 years to late for that to be much of an argument, go figure) and the buzz word of the time was IT only a small percentage of the US really took notice. Sure a lot of people argued about jobs and such, and a ton of people went and jumped into some sort of school to get a little PC knowledge under there belt but the reality is companies like Dell, Gateway, and other per-built computer makers thrived during that time.
Why is that? Because though it all the vast majority of people just say that PC’s where coming so they bough them the same way they’d buy a TV, they check the specs and compared them to the model that was just above there price range and if those two numbers where sort of the same then they where happy. They managed to find something they could afford that should perform just like the model they couldn’t afford, because you know the little numbers on the display cards where almost alike.
About 2 years ago, give or take, I had a friend working in CompUSA who was ordered by the store manager to setup all the PC’s in the back like this:
-Markers banner-
Left side - Model #1 (the high end model)
Middle – Model #2 (the upgraded standard model)
Right side – Model #3 (the budget model)
The thinking behind all of this? First off, you read left to right so thus its nature to scan a crowd of people, or a crowed store shelf left to right. Secondly by only having 3 models on display you gave the buyer a real simple and easy cross section of this maker’s computer and you did it in terms the buyer could under stand (Best to worse). The last was to get the buyer to feel like they made the choice themselves, no one wants to have some salesmen they don’t know just pick a PC from a random grouping and say ‘this one is for you!’, but if you pick it yourself then obviously it’s the right one for you no?
*shrug* what can I say, it’s a dumb trap but it’s been proven so effective by large per-build computer markers bottom lines.