Monday, August 30th 2010
AMD Kills ATI Brand, Future Products to Feature Brand Change
This had to happen eventually, and it did just happen: AMD has dissolved the ATI brand completely, and consolidated ATI brands, such as Radeon and FirePro under the AMD main brand. Under the new branding scheme, new graphics products AMD launches (such as the upcoming Radeon HD 6000 series), will do away with "ATI" completely from the logo, marketing material, and so on, and the market will, as it already has been doing since the AMD-ATI merger, albeit informally, refer to Radeon/FirePro products as "AMD Radeon" and "AMD FirePro".
AMD explains its move as an "evolution of the AMD brand portfolio", saying that consolidation of ATI-branded products under the main brand results in reduced marketing overhead. It claims to have surveyed several thousand discrete graphics-aware users in in the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, Japan, Brazil, and Russia. The survey revealed that when made aware of ATI-AMD merger, AMD preference triples; AMD brand is stronger than ATI (against graphics competitors); and that people see Radeon and FirePro product names more conspicuous than ATI, indicating a "permission" to consolidate ATI into AMD. The survey was conducted entirely by AMD.
The company also claimed that this is the perfect time AMD could possibly consolidate ATI brand, because Radeon products are experiencing good sales, and there's high market penetration of AMD's graphics products. Finally, AMD revealed the new brand logos that are nearly identical to the present ATI logos, of course, minus the revered "ATI".
Looking ahead in the future, AMD expects its Vision branding strategy to cover a wide range of PC processor products, making it easy for consumers to choose a PC. Individual processors still carry their own logos, while Vision serves as a blanket logo to describe what the PC is capable of. AMD made it clear that existing Radeon HD 5000 series product (including the Radeon HD 5000 which are being manufactured or will be manufactured), are not affected by this change.
The transition will take place gradually. While current products aren't affected, with future product-lines (starting with Radeon HD 6000 series, and next-generation FirePro). Partners can choose between two kinds of logos (shown in the first image above), one which is more recognizable with the AMD corporate logo embedded, and one without.
Did you like this move? We're sure a lot of you enthusiasts are going to be very vocal about this move. Either comment in the discussion below, or pick an option on our frontpage poll.
AMD explains its move as an "evolution of the AMD brand portfolio", saying that consolidation of ATI-branded products under the main brand results in reduced marketing overhead. It claims to have surveyed several thousand discrete graphics-aware users in in the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, Japan, Brazil, and Russia. The survey revealed that when made aware of ATI-AMD merger, AMD preference triples; AMD brand is stronger than ATI (against graphics competitors); and that people see Radeon and FirePro product names more conspicuous than ATI, indicating a "permission" to consolidate ATI into AMD. The survey was conducted entirely by AMD.
The transition will take place gradually. While current products aren't affected, with future product-lines (starting with Radeon HD 6000 series, and next-generation FirePro). Partners can choose between two kinds of logos (shown in the first image above), one which is more recognizable with the AMD corporate logo embedded, and one without.
111 Comments on AMD Kills ATI Brand, Future Products to Feature Brand Change
*plays taps*
"finds a bottle of scotch" :ohwell:
I don't care for the name change either but what does bother me is that ATI was a much "cooler" name (IMO). I like the sound of ATI much more than I do AMD but :ohwell:
I also like the logo with the AMD corporate logo embedded. The one without is not as good, but probably for Intel systems.
I do personally feel it was long overdue, I for months have already been calling ATi cards AMD cards, and thought the enthusiast and tech savvy community would've experienced the same.
Sure its sad, but ATi was a dying brand prior to the merger they were just going down and down and further down hill.
I find it conspicuous that AMD have only done this once their graphics hardware is at the top, but I guess that this move is partly due to confidence in their own product.
What surprises me is how it took them years to dissolve the branding altogether, if both companies were greatly successful at the time of the merger years ago, I think this would have happened far far sooner, and there would be less 'butt hurt' about the dissipation of the ATi branding. :)
The industry IS SEGMENTED between CPU and GPU technology and separated in how build and purchase decisions are made. It has been for many years and will continue to be. It's like Jaguar being bought by Ford and calling it a Ford. Or Ferrari being bought by Fiat and calling it a Fiat. It doesnt help anyone.
AMD really need to think out of the box. If ATI is so successful in the consumer space, perhaps they should have used AMD for enterprise computing and ATI-PROCESSORS for consumer. ie. use ATI for CPUs also. Now that would have been smart.
There is a heavy load of tradition in both of these matters, so I am pretty surprised that they decided to go down this road. I hope they are aware that they are giving up possible future card to play should they ever decide to sell this division. I think it would sell much better with ATI brand over it...
Firstly, in terms of PR there will be a lot of average joes who will be wondering why his friend's AMD 5750 can play crysis whilst his G35 dies. (Yes I mentioned crysis). I can only see something positive come out of this.
Good timing anyways since they've bagged most of the market share. 90% of my friends have got AMD hardware lately anyway (and some aren't tech heads).