Continued...

Recently, ATI debuted its X1800 XL and XT CrossFire Edition GPUs and with the launch, it promised (yet again) to have the products ready for retail on the launch date. Unfortunately for ATI, the shipment couldn’t get to retailers in time for the original launch day due to customs issue (maybe ATI is just having a bad season), so being the responsible company that ATI is (finally), it put a hold on the original launch date, and extended the NDA another week. After a week, all reviews went online, but retailers still showed no sign of the X1800 XL and XT CrossFire Edition graphics cards for the majority of the day. Even after two days, we could only locate a handful of retailers with GPUs in stock. Although ATI doesn’t come close to resolving the availability issue as NVIDIA, it has still done a decent job of at least clearing itself on paper.

Either way, we are delighted to see ATI catching up to customer demands and doing its part to make sure the availability is the last thing people have to worry about with new product launches. We appreciate the fact that ATI actually did something to appropriately synchronize the product launch and availability, but as I pointed out, it’s apparently a bad season for ATI, as nothing (related to availability) appears to be going its way. This may lead to limited sales during the busiest shopping season of the year, but hopefully, this will give ATI an opportunity to learn from its mistakes.

As 2005 draws to an end, we can only hope that ATI is focusing on its upcoming product line and availability as a strong suit during the launch day. I’m certain ATI will tag "Products Available For Sale on Launch Day" as an added feature to a successful launch next year, but as long as it can deliver, I shouldn’t complain too much. Oh and while I’ve focused mainly on ATI in this piece, NVIDIA needs to get up and make sure it meets the availability requirements as well. It’s worse seeing a company roll down a ramp than a company’s who can’t keep its promise.