Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Thursday 10/1/2002

I want my... I want my... I want my AMD. Odd moves from youth icon MTV today, who announced that it was going to start selling branded PCs based on AMD's processors, LCD screens and DVD drives. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that, but it seems an odd use of branding.

For me, it all hangs on what the thing looks like. In a week that's seen Apple get uncounted acres of press coverage by putting some -- let's be honest -- rather bland hardware into a box shaped like half a grapefruit with a screen on a stick, it's clear that nobody cares about specifications any more. The covering is the message. So, looking at MTV's current crop of videos and using my personal knowledge of the R&B, garage, nu-metal, indy and dance demographics, I suggest the company make sure that the things come in a timeless casework of leather and denim, have da-glo clip-on disk covers, optional heavy gold jewellery to place around the monitor stand, have a mouse shaped like a Glock, and come with speakers bigger than the 2001 Monolith.

I'd buy one.