interesting discussion...just look back to early 2003...amd stock was mid single digits, they were out talking to system builders about their latest chip at that time and its performance. They also were mentioning their 64 bit processor that was backward compatible and all of its other features. they did their D&P show all over the US...the system builders liked what they said and bought amd chips agressively...look at where the stock went. Now here we are again 2007 and AMD stock is dropping ...will it drop back in the mid single digits. I don't know...but I was a buyer the last time and I would do it again. By the way, I was one of the system builders that attended their D&P show when it came to town. Just remembered one of the things I asked an AMD executive at the show was "would they be able to keep up with demand?" His reply was that they had immediate capability and also had contracts that could be executed to build more processors on an as needed basis and as the need dropped so could the contracts. Sounded like good planning then and if it still exists ...well you get the idea.
Well, from the stock market perspective, every few years, AMD gets written off (thus the insane volatility)... and then they astound. It's almost a cycle with them. I'm not going to worry til AMD declares bankruptcy, and I don't see that happening. I've never seen any company have more rabbits in the hat than AMD over the years, it's one reason I have always loved this company. And if you read the techie sites, AMD is given equal respect to Intel and always has been. You never get the feeling that Intel is the Goliath and AMD is the David. I think that unlike the US, as emerging markets begin buying PC's, they won't be buying based on advertising and hype. Gateway and Dell ads for the dumb masses are less likely to persuade as it did in the US, clock speeds, heat issues and gaming performance vs price will be bigger factors. That's all down the road, and they have money issues to resolve first. If they can resolve them, the potential is incredible.