Newegg brands Intel's Core 2 Duo the world's best processor

ON AMDZONE'S HOME home page, which I'm sure the editor won't be pleased with, a Newegg banner ad was claiming that "the world's best processor has arrived". This was referring to the Intel Core 2 Duo device. This ad has also appeared on Ace's Hardware.

If the ad had said "the world's best "desktop processor has arrived" then I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But it didn't. The ad links to a Newegg page which introduces the Intel Core 2 Duo "desktop" processor.

Now the vast majority of Internet users don't click on ads. A 2004 survey conducted in Germany concluded that in October and November of that year only 0.5 percent of IE users and even less Firefox users (0.11 percent) clicked on an ad. I'm sure those numbers wouldn't be much different today.

Because the Newegg ad displayed the Intel Core 2 Duo logo, it could be argued that those reading the ad would understand that the claim was specific to desktop computing. I don't buy that. Those that design marketing campaigns fully understand the power of message delivery and the impact that it can have on perception.

Now those that design advertising campaigns know that ad click figures are very low. So if an ad was designed to create a particular perception, even if that wasn't true, then that message has to be conveyed within the ad.

Remember the ad: "buy a real 2GHz processor", which was designed to imply that the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ didn't deliver the performance of its 2GHz Intel P4 counterpart.

It's interesting to note that Intel first criticized AMD's use of model numbers but then had to eat humble pie as the chip giant was eventually forced to use them as well.

So some that read the Newegg ad but didn't follow the link may come away thinking that Intel's Core 2 Duo chip is the all-encompassing, best performing chip period, which it isn't.

AMD can still show Intel a clean pair of heels

There is no doubt that in the single and dual socket processor space that Intel now sells the best performing chips available. But in the four and eight socket market segment the laurels still belong to AMD. It's very hard to compete against a platform that delivers near linear scaling - at least up to four sockets. Intel still has a lot of work to do before it can claim that it's Core technology really does leave its AMD64 counterpart eating dust. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

The respected Johan De Gelas said in his June Anandtech review about the chip giant's Woodcrest based Xeon processor: "And what about AMD? The Opteron remains a powerful architecture with a flexible platform. It is quickly becoming the most popular platform for 4 sockets and the upcoming Tulsa CPU is most likely not going to change that."

Sun last month launched the first 16-way x64 server in a single 4U chassis - eight sockets using Opteron dual-core devices. Now that's serious computing horse power. That server has already set four benchmark records. It's no wonder that Intel's quad core chips have been pulled in for launch this year instead of next. The chip giant must really be feeling the heat in the high-end x86 space.

Newegg claims on its Web site: "We view every customer as a customer for life and instill this philosophy in our employees to assure the complete satisfaction of every shopper. We continually evolve to satisfy the insatiable appetites of computer and electronic lovers everywhere and work around the clock to update our site with the hottest products, useful new features and reliable content."

Newegg would certainly claim that it's truly customer-centric and that it puts its shoppers' interests first. If that was true, why did it run an ad that clearly conveys an all-encompassing message? Did Intel marketing help Newegg with the ad, we wonder.

Newegg's all-encompassing statement is clearly overreaching. I'm sure if such an ad was run in the UK consumer complaints would certainly force the Advertising Standards Authority to adjudicate.

Now by just simply adding the word "desktop" to the Newegg ad would make the vendor's claim fair, just and true. And would give the perception that Newegg really does look out for the interests of its shoppers.

This isn't the first time that Newegg has used misleading advertising to maximise its Intel processor sales.

Only last year I wrote that the award winning online retailer had made the claim that the 2MB of level two cache that the 600 series P4 is endowed with meant just one thing: "devastating performance". That wasn't true. Those ads disappeared soon after that story was run. Let's hope history repeats itself or that Newegg makes the necessary change.

I also said in that piece: "Maybe Newegg will learn a lesson from this experience: Read the reviews before running the ads." It seems evident that Newegg still has reading to do.

It was reported that HG Wells once said that advertising is just legalized lying. So maybe what Newegg has claimed this time around really shouldn't be a surprise. µ

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