|
June 2003
A call for a new PC classification
FREE! Jon's
new White Paper on chipset segmentation.
Click here
to download PDF.
By Jon Peddie
 Pent-up
demand by consumers is met with confusion
The consumer market is where the growth is today, so stop irri-tating
the consumers and give them what they want—affordable entertainment
PCs, desktop and mobile.
Let’s start at the bottom
Intel’s integrated graphics parts based on “good-enough” graphics for
the office is the runaway winner in the “Value PC” segment (PCs that
sell for less than a $1,000 and use integrated graphics to keep the
cost down). Some suppliers, like ALi, Intel, S3/VIA, and SiS, have continued
(and will continue) to offer IGCs to serve the commercial market, while
Nvidia only offers IGPs (for AMD systems), and ATI offers both IGCs
and IGPs for AMD and Intel platforms. The commercial market is made
up primarily of people using Microsoft Office—DX8 performance isn’t
important to them. Therefore, many organizations choose the “good-enough”
graphics provided by an IGC, primarily from Intel. (The difference in
price between an IGC and a north bridge without graphics is just a few
dollars and is known in the industry as "free graphics.")
However, the Integrated Graphics Controllers (IGCs) cannot run Microsoft
DirectX 8level games and other multimedia applications.
Consumers, on the other hand, want higher performance capability for
entertainment purposes. Unfortunately, consumers are often unaware of
the limitations of low-end computers.
There is another new category of high-performance integrated parts
using graphics processors, and that is designated as Integrated Graphics
Processors (IGPs). These machines can run applications based on DirectX
8, but once again, consumers might not be made aware of the differences
between these low-cost computers and those computers using IGCs.
I think the industry should designate the Value segment PCs with IGPs
as Entry-Level Entertainment PCs, and machines that are designed for
office applications using IGCs should be designated as Entry-Level Office
PCs—this classification includes machines used in commercial, corporate,
and SOHO environments.
The problem and The opportunity
When DirectX 8 games began appearing in late 2001 for the holiday shopping
season, consumers were exposed to a new level of entertainment and excitement.
Unfortunately, when the consumer goes into a retail outlet and sees
a high-end PC running some fantastic game or multimedia application
(DVD movie, music mixing, picture editing, etc.), they want that machine.
Then they see the price (typically greater than $1,500) and recoil.
Nonetheless, the desire to play games with gorgeous graphics has been
implanted, creating a demand for game playing on the PC rival-ing that
of the game console.
Eager salespeople in the store, not wanting a live one to get away,
direct budget-minded prospective customers to the Value PCs. And, as
is always the case, when consumers have choices, some of them will get
confused and some will be given bad advice. Computers are complex systems
with many features and parameters, and it’s illogical and unfair to
expect consumers to be conversant with all the technical issues. Sadly,
consumers looking for a gaming experience are being sold IGC-based entry-level
machines designed for office use. Too often consumers buy a machine
with a IGC only to find out when they get it home that it won’t play
the kind of games they thought it would, or that it would do any other
multimedia things very well—and that’s because it wasn’t designed for
those applications.
The good news—everyone wins
Because manufacturers and retailers are not correctly labeling or marketing
these systems, consumers are left to try and figure it out on their
own. Microsoft is aware of the problem and has an initiative to simplify
the purchasing experience, and they have been meeting with system integrators,
CPU vendors, graphics accelerator vendors, developers, and publishers
to accomplish that. The goal is to come up with a system that easily
lets consumers know whether or not a game will run on their system.
Instead of requiring users to know their CPU speed, graphics card, amount
of RAM, sound card, etc., Microsoft hopes to come up with a tiered system.
Longhorn will tell you what “level” your system is, so during the boot
screen you’ll see that your system is, for example, level four. This
means you can play games that will run on level-four systems and lower.
If the machines were designated as suggested, Entertainment and Office,
then the salesperson could direct the consumer to the correct choice.
An IGP-based Entertainment machine might cost $50 more, but I believe
the consumer will gladly pay the higher price to get the performance.
It’s a win-win for everyone—the IGP suppliers like ATI and Nvidia get
a higher ASP, the box builders get more, and the salesperson gets more.
And best of all, the consumer is happy.
Contact Jon: Jon@jonpeddie.com
|
