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AMD: No price cuts on the way

Departing from its old pattern, AMD says it doesn't need to follow Intel's latest cuts.
Written by Jane Wakefield, Contributor and  Richard Barry, Contributor

Despite claimsearlier this week that AMD would "have to respond" to Intel price cuts announced Monday, the company now says no immediate price changes will be made to the Athlon family of processors.

Intel's price cuts of up to 41 percent on low-end Pentium II and Pentium III processors are, according to sources, designed to keep pressure on its long term rival and to maintain interest among consumers.

AMD's European marketing director Robert Stead, told ZDNet News Thursday: "We do not need to make cuts on the Athlon family, regardless of Intel's reductions. We do not slavishly follow Intel's price changes." Traditionally, AMD has been seen to shadow Intel's price cuts.

Stead admits there is a constant battle to balance price cuts of individual chips while keeping the average price above $100 (£62). "We have 45 to 50 microprocessors and we need to achieve an average of $100 or above," says Stead.

Last year CEO W.J. Sanders said AMD's average selling price needed to stay above $100 for the company to stay profitable.

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