ShadowRAM: July 16, 2007
AMD: Because 'Just In Time' Is So Cliche
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Last week, if you tried to order a Dell Inspiron 1501 with an AMD processor, the online configurator told you it would be a 30-day wait for your order to come through. Not so with Intel-based SKUs in Dell's product lines, where the wait was measured at a few days at most. Hewlett-Packard, by the way, was only reporting a wait of one to two weeks for similar AMD-based products from its company, but, again, the wait times for Intel-based systems was much shorter.
It was only a couple of quarters ago that AMD faced the wrath of the system builder channel when it couldn't meet orders in a timely way—a wrath so severe it caused AMD to miss its earnings numbers on Wall Street.
This could just be a blip, but it's worth watching. During AMD's most recent conference call with financial analysts to talk about numbers, muckety-muck Henri Richard put it this way: "I am not concerned whatsoever with our inventory position, either with our channel partners or our key OEMs, to be frank."
He may have more to say on July 16, when AMD executives and directors face company shareholders in its annual meeting, or on July 19, when AMD next announces earnings.
Circuit City Names Its Competition
• Last week Circuit City tapped Bruce Besanko, former CFO of The Yankee Candle Company, as its new CFO. Reading through his employment agreement, one can stumble onto a paragraph with non-compete language to handle the possibility of Besanko leaving. It reads, "During the Executive's employment and for a period of one (1) year following the last day of the Executive's employment, the Executive shall not directly or indirectly compete with the Company by engaging, in a competitive capacity, in any business that is engaged in the same or similar business of the Company, specifically including, but not limited to, Best Buy Co., Inc.; Dell, Inc; eBay; Wal-Mart Stores; Amazon.com, and any of the related or affiliated entities for each of the above companies."
Looks like we might be able to rule out a potential Dell retail play at Circuit City, no?
Seen And Heard
•Weird Science, Move Over At last week's Oracle Database 11g launch, EVP Chuck Rozwat's tongue got ahead of itself with an unintentionally humorous result. Stumbling over the phrase "with realtime data," he blurted out, "Weird data." Now, frankly, handling realtime data is expected, but if Oracle could start showing us examples of "weird data" that its software can handle, it might make people less likely to nod off during their product launches.
•Mandatory iPhone Item Back when Netscape was still a $100 stock, companies would routinely try to find a way to describe their "Internet strategy." Now, get ready for the "iPhone strategy." Digg.com, the online link-to-news-and-vote-on-its-popularity Web community, last week developed an iPhone-optimized version of its site. It's just a matter of time before all the cool kids start iPhone-optimizing things.