AMD Australia targets more channel focus

2007 was a big year for AMD with the eventual release of its Barcelona quad-core chips while its ongoing battle with Intel showed no signs of subsiding.

Leung is optimistic that AMD will continue to move in the right direction during 2008 and plans to reach this aim with the help of the vendor’s local channel partners.

“We want to put more resources into our channel this year and want to get in touch with the channel more and more,” he said. “We believe we will make the channel stronger than ever before.”

In July 2006, AMD announced plans to acquire graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies for US$5.4 billion. According to Leung, 2008 will also see a large focus from AMD on the integration and success of its ATI business.

“We want more channel sales for our CPU and ATI business,” said Leung. “I will put a strong focus on ATI as I can see the graphics market being very strong. We will be running events to ensure our branding is strong alongside the engagement program we have in place for our channel.”

Leung added that AMD’s current distribution model of using Ingram, Synnex, Avnet and Legend as its distribution partners, with Altech working as a sole platinum partner, is working well for the vendor. It has no plans to alter its distribution strategy at the current time.