NVIDIA Dictates Advertised Video Card Pricing

[werty316]

Kyle over at HardOCP has an interesting article that caught my interest and made me think differently about Nvidia. Give it a read, and if you understand it, you might feel a little disgusted.


http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4829/1213507275lrn6ypk26qtitfl3.gif Did you wonder why your GeForce purchasing experience may have changed? Have you wondered why you might have seen all cards priced the same or not priced at all? We have some answers for you on that front and it is called "UMAP."


Source: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUxOSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Best line in the article:

This type of UMAP policy is illegal in Canada and in some countries in Europe.

[coxmaster]

Yep.. i noticed that on Tigerdirect a couple of days ago.

One way prices are still staying lower: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3441351&CatId=3670

Notice the "advertised price" is $199.. but as long as they make you click they can charge less

[Goliath182]

Wow I hope Nvidia doesn't put this to bad use by making prices go up. :ahhhhh:

[srpeters18]

Many companies have been doing this for a while now, if you've bought anything off Amazon.com lately many of their products are the same way. I don't like it either, as I hate having to bring up each page to actually find the price. But I don't think its going to raise our prices any.

[darkorb]

Wow so that is what this is.

On NCIX.com, it shows the 9800GTX at $350 but it is crossed out, clickking the link shows the price of $260

[PP Mguire]

Usualy to combat this companies drop prices for the customer inconvinance. Its like back in the day going to Kroger and using that little card at the check out for lower prices marked by Kroger. In this case you just have to click on the item to view price and hit the back button on your mouse. Ive been doing this for a while now and even though yes its more time consuming ive noticed that prices have been lowerd becasue of it. IDK about you guys but if it means taking 2 more seconds outa my day to view a price to spend less money i dont have a problem with it. This just goes to show that Nvidia dosent care about anything except what goes in their pockets and they will shun the little man to do it. Ive been saying this since the time we found out the 9 series was a rehashed 8 series. If ATIs next lineup is anything as good as its hyped up to be ill purchase ATI. Because honestly i hate using a product from a greedy company.

[AJ.]

:flag_bs:

The last thing we all need is Nvidia pulling out this crap. Shopping for the best deals around used to be hard as it was. I don't think major vendors should put up with it. They just want to feed off peoples ignorance.

[Methious]

I think that's a shady policy, but their cards rock so hard I'll still be using them (grumble grumble).

[PP Mguire]

With the way things are looking the 4870 might kick ass compared to the 280.

[SonicWRX]

I don't see how this helps anyone... All this dose is make our shopping research harder. Sure its only another click or what ever away. But ultimately all they have done is waist more time for the shopper. People are going to buy what ever product is the best deal regardless if it takes one extra click or not. In the end the consumer will buy what ever one is the best deal regardless of its "Advertised price". The only price that matters is the one that appears on the final sales receipt.

The cards will be priced based on what it has always been. (the final cost that is) Cost to produce it and deliver it to market. Its a numbers game and it alway has been. This branding and advertising crap is all fluff to give some artsy fartsy people a job and help them justify there sad little existence. They pray on the ignorant and thats it. Crap like this just confuses the people not in the know making it harder and tuning them off to a brand and pisses off the people in the know turning them off to a brand. However, given that Nvidia is basically the only one left in the high end market what do they care? That's where the best profit margin is anyway. If they make shopping too hard in the mid market they will lose ground to ATi as long at ATi keeps it simple.

I still stand by my prediction that I made a while ago. Nvida and ATi have an unwritten agreement. ATi will hammer it out in the Low to Mid Market and Nvida will Hammer it out in the Mid to High market. This keeps both company's in business and makes it harder for others to get into the market even with the deep pockets of Intel and others. This way Nvidia can Spend its R&D on keeping the crown and ATi can concentrate on keeping the Mid market at the best value possible to make it too hard for anyone to startup and cover its costs of the start up. We'll see if this is how it plays out but thats my thoughts on the matter. Together they can corner the GPU market and not have to worry about anti-trust lawsuits.

[PP Mguire]

I don't see how this helps anyone... Nowhere did anybody say it helps people. If anything its a nuciance.

[SonicWRX]

Nowhere did anybody say it helps people. If anything its a nuciance.

Well if you read what Nvidia said they think this is going to help sales for there US partners.