Yes, particularly with its stellar record of success of late. I can't possibly imagine a company wanting to reinvent itself in the name of progress. You're right, I'm a bloody ignoramus.
It's a globally recognized brand in computing and products under the brand have a huge market share, why are you surprised it's still around? I'd be surprised if they got rid of it because trying to build a new brand is difficult, and pointless if you already own a well recognized/respected one.
@ Gilbert, Could you please point me to this drastic downturn in Nvidia's fortunes? While I agree they no longer hold the top slot in system builders books (I personally prefer my ATI 4870), but they still hold a bigger market share then ATi, and thanks to price cuts their current offerings are at least competitive, and Ati has held onto their Radeon branding for similarly long.
You really think that a couple batches of bad laptop cards are going to make Nvidia try start from scratch with a new brand name? If anything it would lose them customers, because people are generally wary and scared of new things. GeForce is familiar and while it they had some recent trouble they've always been known to be good cards.
Nvidia doesn't need to change it's brand name in order to achieve progress. Look how much they've expanded just lately. 8800 and above cards all have build in physics processing, they've released products that use your graphics card to work with your processor in video conversions and other tasks, they worked with Adobe in developing CS4's new features, and now they have 3D glasses that also work with 8 series cards and above. All of that is under the GeForce name. It would be idiotic to through recognition of all their achievements away.
Likewise, take a look at the share price a year ago and take a look at it today. Today the price is perilously close to what it was ten years ago, when the GeForce first launched. Oodles of progress, it seems.
Look, I'm not saying it's a bad product at all (barring instances like the one above, which any company is subject to, really); what I'm saying is that at some point things become stagnant. In my eyes, that's how I view the GeForce brand. When one comes out with a new number at the end, do you really get excited? It's nice to see something new, particularly from a manufacturer whose primary industry thrives on innovation.
You could of course argue the subject of this post is indicative of innovation, but to me, it's just another model number.
@ Gilbert Look at any company today and it's share price will be similar to what it was years ago, because you know the ECONOMIC RECESSION. I'm not saying they haven't had some knocks, but they still hold the highest share in the discrete graphics card market, and overall are in a strong position to survive, and I don't see how the GeForce name can 'stagnate' these aren't food goods, they're technology and are rated on their individual pros/cons regardless of what banner the cards are held under.
I was hoping someone would bring up the recession. It's the same as saying, "HA! My portfolio only lost 10% and yours lost 30%, so I win!" No, you both lost.
Recessions are generally a prime example of a time when companies need to reinvent themselves. I certainly agree that Nvidia is likely to stick around. At the same time, I think it's funny that most are missing my point. I'm not saying to mess with success, whatever that means in terms of a company that's a mere 50% skid (hey, it's a recession, right?) away from being delisted from the exchange.
My point was that it's a surprising thing that the brand is still around. Immediately, the interweb assumed I meant something bad. Like I said, it's hard to believe. Intel, with its near-monopoly on PC processors, found a way to move forward after the Pentium brand. They said, "hey, we've been at the Pentium game for years and it's time to show the world we're made of more than this one thing."
When I look at a company objectively, I look at how many time they've made that precise statement and proven themselves afterward.
Clearly, the GeForce brand is solid. After all, if it wasn't then this conversation would be moot. More importantly, however, what's next?
I specifically chose to ignore your statement about how a brand can become stagnant, simply because their are literally tomes worth of evidence to suggest that very possibility.
At the same time, if you are suggesting that it is impossible that a brand become stagnant when it is associated with a proven success, I, in turn, point you to In-N-Out Burger, whose famously simple menu has not changed for decades. Nevertheless, if one takes a deeper look, they see there is a whole secret menu 'neath the surface from which the more experienced can order. It might not be official, but its a very rare example, of fear of stagnation in the face of a highly respected brand so great that the customers took it into their own hands to induce change.
And using the 'Pentium' name as a prime example for brand change, you think they changed it primarily because they thought they held the name too long? It looks like you're unaware of what intel did to the Pentium name, they made it hotter, consume more power and manage to still be slower than the competition (a.k.a. Athlon X2). I think they decided that a new name was needed because they have managed to make 3 iterations of these 'not-so-good' processors, a long enough time for people to associate Pentium with being hot, power-hungry and just slower.
With 'GeForce' they've managed to slip-up once, namely the FX series. Fortunately due to the quick product refresh with video cards, they managed to drop the 'FX' and just move on and create 6, 7, 8 and 2xx. ATi, it's pretty much the same case and they have managed to slip up only with the 2000 series.
AMD really didn't have trouble with the Athlon naming, though it has been a while since they released a new product, so a seemingly 'menacing' name would help with marketing a new product. Though the end product was not all that it was hyped up to be, though it is still a good product.
Your In-N-Out statement is just a complete fail at best. Food would usually taste the same (unless management decides to change the recipe or fire the cook), technology keeps changing, so the GeForce you get today is not the same GeForce next year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
It's hard to believe that the GeForce brand is still around.
Oh, yeah, I find it hard to believe that a company chose to continue a brand that is their main source of income.
Yes, particularly with its stellar record of success of late. I can't possibly imagine a company wanting to reinvent itself in the name of progress. You're right, I'm a bloody ignoramus.
It's a globally recognized brand in computing and products under the brand have a huge market share, why are you surprised it's still around? I'd be surprised if they got rid of it because trying to build a new brand is difficult, and pointless if you already own a well recognized/respected one.
@ Gilbert,
Could you please point me to this drastic downturn in Nvidia's fortunes? While I agree they no longer hold the top slot in system builders books (I personally prefer my ATI 4870), but they still hold a bigger market share then ATi, and thanks to price cuts their current offerings are at least competitive, and Ati has held onto their Radeon branding for similarly long.
You really think that a couple batches of bad laptop cards are going to make Nvidia try start from scratch with a new brand name? If anything it would lose them customers, because people are generally wary and scared of new things. GeForce is familiar and while it they had some recent trouble they've always been known to be good cards.
Nvidia doesn't need to change it's brand name in order to achieve progress. Look how much they've expanded just lately. 8800 and above cards all have build in physics processing, they've released products that use your graphics card to work with your processor in video conversions and other tasks, they worked with Adobe in developing CS4's new features, and now they have 3D glasses that also work with 8 series cards and above. All of that is under the GeForce name. It would be idiotic to through recognition of all their achievements away.
@Gnormie:
http://gizmodo.com/5021713/lots-of-nvidia-laptop-graphics-cards-are-overheating-dying
Likewise, take a look at the share price a year ago and take a look at it today. Today the price is perilously close to what it was ten years ago, when the GeForce first launched. Oodles of progress, it seems.
Look, I'm not saying it's a bad product at all (barring instances like the one above, which any company is subject to, really); what I'm saying is that at some point things become stagnant. In my eyes, that's how I view the GeForce brand. When one comes out with a new number at the end, do you really get excited? It's nice to see something new, particularly from a manufacturer whose primary industry thrives on innovation.
You could of course argue the subject of this post is indicative of innovation, but to me, it's just another model number.
even bad publicity is good publicity
@ Gilbert
Look at any company today and it's share price will be similar to what it was years ago, because you know the ECONOMIC RECESSION. I'm not saying they haven't had some knocks, but they still hold the highest share in the discrete graphics card market, and overall are in a strong position to survive, and I don't see how the GeForce name can 'stagnate' these aren't food goods, they're technology and are rated on their individual pros/cons regardless of what banner the cards are held under.
I was hoping someone would bring up the recession. It's the same as saying, "HA! My portfolio only lost 10% and yours lost 30%, so I win!" No, you both lost.
Recessions are generally a prime example of a time when companies need to reinvent themselves. I certainly agree that Nvidia is likely to stick around. At the same time, I think it's funny that most are missing my point. I'm not saying to mess with success, whatever that means in terms of a company that's a mere 50% skid (hey, it's a recession, right?) away from being delisted from the exchange.
My point was that it's a surprising thing that the brand is still around. Immediately, the interweb assumed I meant something bad. Like I said, it's hard to believe. Intel, with its near-monopoly on PC processors, found a way to move forward after the Pentium brand. They said, "hey, we've been at the Pentium game for years and it's time to show the world we're made of more than this one thing."
When I look at a company objectively, I look at how many time they've made that precise statement and proven themselves afterward.
Clearly, the GeForce brand is solid. After all, if it wasn't then this conversation would be moot. More importantly, however, what's next?
@Gnormie:
I specifically chose to ignore your statement about how a brand can become stagnant, simply because their are literally tomes worth of evidence to suggest that very possibility.
At the same time, if you are suggesting that it is impossible that a brand become stagnant when it is associated with a proven success, I, in turn, point you to In-N-Out Burger, whose famously simple menu has not changed for decades. Nevertheless, if one takes a deeper look, they see there is a whole secret menu 'neath the surface from which the more experienced can order. It might not be official, but its a very rare example, of fear of stagnation in the face of a highly respected brand so great that the customers took it into their own hands to induce change.
Please excuse my erroneous comma.
Successful troll is successful!
@Gilbert Tang
And using the 'Pentium' name as a prime example for brand change, you think they changed it primarily because they thought they held the name too long? It looks like you're unaware of what intel did to the Pentium name, they made it hotter, consume more power and manage to still be slower than the competition (a.k.a. Athlon X2). I think they decided that a new name was needed because they have managed to make 3 iterations of these 'not-so-good' processors, a long enough time for people to associate Pentium with being hot, power-hungry and just slower.
With 'GeForce' they've managed to slip-up once, namely the FX series. Fortunately due to the quick product refresh with video cards, they managed to drop the 'FX' and just move on and create 6, 7, 8 and 2xx. ATi, it's pretty much the same case and they have managed to slip up only with the 2000 series.
AMD really didn't have trouble with the Athlon naming, though it has been a while since they released a new product, so a seemingly 'menacing' name would help with marketing a new product. Though the end product was not all that it was hyped up to be, though it is still a good product.
Your In-N-Out statement is just a complete fail at best. Food would usually taste the same (unless management decides to change the recipe or fire the cook), technology keeps changing, so the GeForce you get today is not the same GeForce next year.