Is ATI watching the Windows Media Center's growing maket share?

[p jayant]

Has ATI noted that Microsoft with its offering of the Windows Media
Centre, is in the process of banking on the weakness of ATI by offering
a ready-made and easy to implement solution for all the multi-media
applications ordinary users want to see working on their PC and TV at
home? If WMC does not wipe out ATI's Video and TV Tuner Cards
business, it at least has the potential to bite off a solid chunk of
the ATI market for these products.
Over years, ATI has been putting newer and better video cards on the
market without ever providing flawless support for its older cards,
compelling customers to migrate to the newer cards. The lynchpin has
been the set of drivers - called the Catalyst set for the last 5 years
- and the MMC. ATI has been advising customers to constantly update to
the latest set of Catalyst drivers and the MMC but never provided
consolidated information on which combination of Catalyst and MMC
versions works flawlessly for each generation of video cards. That is
why, as is evident from the postings on this NewsGroup, the number of
dissatisfied customers ATI has is several times that of those who are
satisfied. Most of the satisfied customers are those who have brought
the latest generation of card and have not yet had the experience of
upgrading the software. Once they experience it, they can now walk off
to the WMC path.
If ATI wants to save itself from the doomsday WMC is bringing on ATI in
due course, it is high time ATI buckles up and straightens out its
support for all the Cards which customers are still using in the
market, rather than put newer versions of hardware and software on the
market, dumping the customers with whose money they built up their
business.

P. Jayant

 

[J. Clarke]

Has ATI noted that Microsoft with its offering of the Windows Media
Centre, is in the process of banking on the weakness of ATI by offering
a ready-made and easy to implement solution for all the multi-media
applications ordinary users want to see working on their PC and TV at
home? If WMC does not wipe out ATI's Video and TV Tuner Cards
business, it at least has the potential to bite off a solid chunk of
the ATI market for these products.
Over years, ATI has been putting newer and better video cards on the
market without ever providing flawless support for its older cards,
compelling customers to migrate to the newer cards. The lynchpin has
been the set of drivers - called the Catalyst set for the last 5 years
- and the MMC. ATI has been advising customers to constantly update to
the latest set of Catalyst drivers and the MMC but never provided
consolidated information on which combination of Catalyst and MMC
versions works flawlessly for each generation of video cards. That is
why, as is evident from the postings on this NewsGroup, the number of
dissatisfied customers ATI has is several times that of those who are
satisfied. Most of the satisfied customers are those who have brought
the latest generation of card and have not yet had the experience of
upgrading the software. Once they experience it, they can now walk off
to the WMC path.
If ATI wants to save itself from the doomsday WMC is bringing on ATI in
due course, it is high time ATI buckles up and straightens out its
support for all the Cards which customers are still using in the
market, rather than put newer versions of hardware and software on the
market, dumping the customers with whose money they built up their
business.

This is about a 0.01 on the troll-o-meter.