More builders sound off about the price war

[crackdlr]

umm, computers as a commodity?

gold is a commodity, silver, pork, oil, sugar, coffee...

but you cant overclock wheat, or copper, or salt, or oil

if you could, then whoever overclocked them the most could make some extra $$$ off the overclock

commodity, correct me if im wrong, is a base product that does not change from one supplier to another - sugar is sugar. it makes things sweet. if you get sugar from canada it is not different from sugar from zimbabwe. both make things sweet. If canada, due to their weather or soil, could make 99 tons of sugar in the same space it takes zimbabwe to make 1 ton - canada sets the price, or sets the tone, for what sugar should cost.

THATS WAT MAKES EM STABLE

computer? not so much... eventually computers might switch from making calculations off electricity to making calculations off light pulses... and they'll probably be cheaper to run(eventually)... there goes the prices again falling even lower

 

[flasher702]

umm, computers as a commodity?

gold is a commodity, silver, pork, oil, sugar, coffee...

but you cant overclock wheat, or copper, or salt, or oil

if you could, then whoever overclocked them the most could make some extra $$$ off the overclock

commodity, correct me if im wrong, is a base product that does not change from one supplier to another - sugar is sugar. it makes things sweet. if you get sugar from canada it is not different from sugar from zimbabwe. both make things sweet. If canada, due to their weather or soil, could make 99 tons of sugar in the same space it takes zimbabwe to make 1 ton - canada sets the price, or sets the tone, for what sugar should cost.

THATS WAT MAKES EM STABLE

computer? not so much... eventually computers might switch from making calculations off electricity to making calculations off light pulses... and they'll probably be cheaper to run(eventually)... there goes the prices again falling even lower

There most certainly are differences in commodities (eat some brazillian organges right after eating some florida oranges), but they are small. Personal computer devices will likely reach a point where the capabilities between different models are similarly very small, but they probably won't resemble what we know today as a "Personal Computer".

As for the word Commodity itself, there are a few definitions but I was refering primarlity to

...a mass-produced unspecialized product...
...a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price...

http://m-w.com/dictionary/commodity

Personal Computers and many other products have already made huge leaps towards this ubiquitous availablility and dimished importance of of distinguishing properties. To the average user today what is the difference between an HP with an AMD processor and a Dell with an Intel Processor? Nada. They will choose the one that is cheaper because the other factors don't matter to them. "Enthusiast" computing will never quite get to that point, it will probably loose all popularity and die first, but gaming computing either will get there or it will go extinct and be replaced by consoles. High-end server environments will never get there, but the "high end" part will become less popular as "average" server environments become capable of doing what people need. But this is normal. You can pay huge price differences for "commodities" such as sugar if you want to be picky about what kind of sugar you get but the difference between no-name brand white cane sugar and some super-fancy organic turbinado sugar is pretty small and most people just buy the cheap stuff. Computing devices will eventually be the same way.

This price war is, however, a temporary thing and not part of a market transition. The cost to design and produce these chips has not recently gone down significantly, there are no new players in the chip market who might be willing/able to operate on smaller margins to get their foot in the door or any other significant changes to the market so the price cuts are coming directly out of *someones* bottom line (mostly Intel's but they can afford it. Others might not be able to keep it up for long). So while it's a great time for a consumer to buy a CPU, this price war does not make sense for the industry and the global society depends on this industry (at least that's the argument being put forth and the reason why it should be taken seriously. The argument could be wrong but this price war is not 'business as ussual').

 

[dragonsprayer]

builders stitting on amd fx-06's and fx-62 last month got killed!

no different when intel slashed prices last summer - you sitting on a p4 that gones form $350 to $180 ti $150 or less in few months.

keep stock low

most computer pars and computers themselves are a commodity- dram is a good example - prices change all the time. dram is cheap now, it peaked a few months ago after falling from the summer.

basically all computer parts fall as faster better smaller parts push dowm prices - same as food oil or anything.

 

[Synergy6]

"Boo-freaking-hoo". That is all for now.
Synergy6