Why Buy ATI?
ATI still plans to manufacture, sell, and support all of its OEM products as well as retail and graphics boards, such as the All-In-Wonder Radeon and Radeon 64MB. Company executives say the deal is meant primarily to encourage creation of “white box,” nonretail graphics boards for sale to PC vendors, but that it won’t stop manufacturers from selling ATI chip-based boards at retail and competing directly against ATI’s own retail products. “If other manufacturers decide to build retail boards, we’re not going to fight them,” Orton says. “But we could conceivably see an ATI Radeon ASUS [graphics] board [on store shelves].” If third-party boards do end up in computer shops and for sale online, Orton contends that ATI’s brand name, service, and support will keep consumers loyal to ATI-branded boards. Analyst Glaskowsky isn’t so sure, though. ATI may end up losing margins when people figure out there are cheaper graphics boards with the same configuration, he says. “There is not a lot of vid
