ATI Technologies, banking on the continuing momentum of its Asia Pac Partner Program (APPP) rebate program and the late September launch of its Radeon 9800XT and Radeon 9600XT chips, expects its graphics chips will capture 50% of China’s clone market in the fourth quarter of this year, according to company chairman and CEO Ho Kwok-yuen.
In the OEM graphics chip sector, the Canadian chip designer hopes to claim a 70% share, Ho said.
The APPP marketing strategy, introduced by ATI in September 2002, enables regional SIs (system integrators) and retailers to benefit from a rebate of US$1-5, depending on product lines, when purchasing products from ATI’s verified card-manufacturing partners.
ATI also began selling the Radeon 9100IGP in June for the Intel Pentium 4 platform. Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology and Micro-Star International (MSI) are developing motherboards using the chip. ATI expects volume shipments of the chip to be more prominent in the first quarter of next year and targets a 10% share in the global desktop chipset market in fiscal 2004 (ending August 31). In addition, ATI is supplying the Mobility Radeon 9100IGP for the Centrino platform.
In the consumer electronics sector, ATI announced last week that Motorola has chosen its Imageon 2250 multimedia and display co-processor for its new handset line-up, including the V300, V500 and V600 handsets. In August, Microsoft chose ATI’s graphics chips over Nvidia’s for its next-generation Xbox game consoles. Ho expects that the company’s consumer electronics business will continue to contribute about 10% of total sales.
Info-Tek Corporation (ITC) launched its GeCube-branded graphics card powered by the Radeon 9800XT chip. Photo: Allen Lin.
ATI chairman and CEO Ho Kwok-yuen. Photo: Allen Lin.
Article translated by Chinmei Sung and edited by Chinmei Sung
