AMD thumped by price war ‘Barcelona’ may help

Can AMD's first quad-core processor–Barcelona–due in mid-2007 give it more ammo against Intel in a pricing war?

John Spooner thinks so and argues as much in the ChipLand blog. AMD issued a profit warning and has been widely panned by Wall Street. To wit:

"While we estimate AMD desktop and notebook units grew healthy double-digits, we also believe it is likely AMD saw ASP declines. As Intel has been ramping up its competitive dual-core Core 2 Duo, AMD likely saw the most pressure in its own dual-core products," says UBS Equities analyst Uche Orji, who adds that Intel isn't likely to see pricing pressure.

Bottom line: All AMD has to do is get its pricing up. Easier said than done, but the best AMD can do is to hold the fort for a few more months. Once Barcelona enables AMD to raise prices the outlook should get better.