First, my response to the
InQ report, originally posted on
another forum. (BGP Spook = BGP_Spook)
I don't know what to think of this.
I did some looking around and only a little more than four years ago the newest top end cards cost ~$400 (
Geforce 4 Ti4600) and the latest top end card costs ~$600 (
Geforce 8 8800GTX), that is a 50% price increase in four years.
On the other hand, the dollar has lost value during that time and the cost of producing new video cards has gone up.
There may be some grounds for the allegations, duopoly's(or near duopoly's) are always tricky since neither competitor really wants to lower prices.
It could be entirely do to market forces without any collusion at all.
I will add that every new high-end card released from ATI or Nvidia is always introduced at about the same price point, call it "the high-end price." It used to be $400 USD several years ago but it has been creeping up to $600 USD now.
It is the the same price regardless of which company seems to have the best high end card.
The rest of the cards then slid in price as the performance decreases. Although, it seems that some mid-range video cards have been floating around the same price point for the last year and a half.
I am pretty sure it is the consistency of the introductory price points(not just at the high end?) that is under investigation.
-----------------------------------------
Aside from Larrabee Development Group and by extension Intel choosing this point in time to enter the news by accelerating their endeavor I don't see any connection.
The only scenario where I can see Intel being behind this push is an attempt to under cut AMD's price margins for video cards. Yet, as someone pointed out, Intel was, apparently, already entering the discrete video card market before the ATI purchase, however I don't know when the investigation first started.
-----------------------------------------
@everyone:
It would greatly be appreciated if the source of any quote used is given along with the selected quote. This is especially true if the source is not quoted in entirety, as readers might want to read the rest of the source.
Not!
Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors selling the same product or service regarding its pricing. In general, it is an agreement intended to ultimately push the price of a product as high as possible, leading to profits for all the sellers. Price-fixing can also involve any agreement to fix, peg, discount or stabilize prices. The principal feature is any agreement on price, whether express or implied. For the buyer, meanwhile, the practice results in a phenomenon similar to price gouging.
Source:?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing
From
wiki:
Under U.S. law, price fixing is only illegal if it is intentional and comes about via communication or agreement between firms or individuals. It is not illegal for a firm to copy the price movements of a de facto market leader called price leadership, which has been seen to be the case in markets for breakfast cereals and cigarettes. But informal agreements or unspoken agreements to fix price also can violate the antitrust laws.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram