I do not want to speculate now about the ‘grey market’ and various excesses in China or Russia. This is so nitable that in this country you have to use force to look for products that fall under this heading. And yet there are Chinese manufacturers who produce quite decent products at interesting prices. I do not want to name names for understandable reasons, but in discussions with several CEOs of such family-owned companies, it quickly becomes clear that board partner existence is not limited to the technical side. With which bandages are fought in red and green, then show such statements:
AMD is more than happy to see your report and kill UK’s Target because they are selling our cards. Because they (AMD sales guy in UK) are not getting any sales benefit because i am not AIC/AIB. They prefer to help Powercolor.
This is somehow AMD guys just told our UK customers not to buy our AMD 580 this week, said a rumor that our 580 is re-bios from 570. Just because I am not AIB. And my UK distributor is very sad. Of course i will not give up.
Of course, this also works in green:
So i can only keep good manner with NV guys and follow up “not to accross the line”, not doing too much.. (loudlycrying)
This is interesting in that it is very nice to see that both chip manufacturers let their regional representatives participate in sales, because Nvidia also pays close attention to the content and scope of such deliveries. This, in turn, only works with contracted board partners and not with independent manufacturers.
Back, Here and finally arrived
Nevertheless, we have to talk about the stakes and claims that dominate the regional markets, because it also affects the “big ones”. A fairly recent example is, for example, the entry of ASRock as the new, exclusive AIB of AMD, which also did not remain free of confusion and confusion. The trigger for the whole story was my exclusive test of the RX 580 Phantom from ASRock and the publication in German and English. That, in turn, should not have taken place in the first place.
After the review of the ASRock RX 580 Phantom Gaming X, I received a request from ASRock, where I would have the card, since a sale in Europe is not planned at all. The quote published at the time was removed at the request of the ASRock employee in question in order to save him from further problems with AMD. But exactly this circumstance was never really clearly communicated in advance. After the German media landscape was still full of relevant video and text messages, AMD’s withdrawal suddenly came due to regional sales bans and restrictions.
But why? The card is not so bad as to have to hide it. But the claims and feed dispute with the other AIb, who also suffered from deficiency symptoms and high mining fever, were quite possible. I contacted the ASRock headquarters in The Mail 2018 and received a first statement on 07.05.2018:
“… The VGA card products are only sold in South America and APEC (exclude China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) at first. I cannot provide you the MSRP and the warranty duration because they are different in different sales region…”
If you now take into account the APEC member list and exclude the above exclusions, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia and Vietnam. ASRock did not sell the tickets in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as reported in some news reports, in order to conquer the Chinese market. About 2 hours later, they re-energised:
“The decision of sales region for ASRock VGA card is based on the planning of mutual channel agreement. So far the first priority is Asia Pacific and Latin America. No confirmed schedules in EU markets yet”
A day later, I received the next email from THE ASRock headquarters, which refers to the strategic planning of the further business:
“ASRock wants to roll out VGA business in various regions based on own resources planning. Regions with first priorities are APEC and Latin America. Then we will gradually launch the business in other regions”.
But it went on cheerfully. After my exclusive conversation with LL Shiu, the president of ASRock, in the run-up to Computex 2018, I was able to officially report for the first time that the manufacturer can and will offer its new graphics card portfolio in Europe and thus of course also in Germany. I had also published the official statement in advance.
… ASRock announced its entry into the graphics card market with the Phantom Gaming series in April 2018 – a strong product line from AMD Radeon™ RX500 graphics cards. First, ASRock introduced the graphics card business in different, selected regions, based on internal planning. These regions of the highest priority were the APAC countries and Latin America. AsRock plans to gradually launch the business in other regions. Now finally, from the 1st. July 2018, ASRock will finally enter the EMEA market…
So my exclusive test, as well as the subsequent little mistakes, turmoil and discussions behind the scenes, have led to availability in the European area. How this change of heart came about at the end of the day is certainly a mystery, because AMD is also pushing through certain NDAs.
Summary and conclusion
With these small examples from an editor’s activity now almost 12 years old and as a developer on the different sides of power, the main thing wanted to show you was why I sometimes judge things differently than you might expect in the normal mainstream. As a reviewer who wants to assess a product objectively, it is also necessary to know how such products are produced, how production and distribution channels work and where, for example, the sensitivities of the chip manufacturers are so.
Some things simply cannot be solved differently, even if the general public might like to do so. There are technical, financial and regional reasons which all too often contradict and stand in the way of the simple solutions. There have been many other things over the years that you could write about, but everything takes time and the right moment to publish it. This ranges from partially defective heatpipes that no one has ever noticed, to feverish pumps in AMD’s FuryX and Gigabytes Waterforce.
And even if I’m getting a beating for it now, because I find this Green Light story useful and quite clever, AMD is hard to catch up with. Because if you then look at the RMA cases and what all the defective stuff is sent back, then quite rightly. The instinct to play and destroy so many end customers is downright frightening.
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