Nvidia to more aggressively go after small biz market

Santa Clara (CA) - Nvidia will put more focus on the small business, government and educational market with its "Business Platform" certification. The program is aligned with AMD and will gain visibility next week with first "certified" systems hitting the market. The strategy may allow Nvidia and AMD to take another shot at Intel's dominance in the business chipset and processor market.

PC systems aiming for small companies, government and educational institutions is a lucrative business opportunity for system and component builders. It's especially the higher unit-count sold per customer and the resulting opportunity to improve margins that makes this target group very attractive for the IT industry. But it's not an easy market to crack, if you aren't an established supplier in this field as businesses are typically asking for very specific requirements in PCs they are purchasing.

And for the most part, performance is not what these customers are asking for; it's the total cost of ownership (TCO) they are interested in. With most cost being created after a purchase of the actual PC - for example through technical support - IT managers typically standardize their PC base as much as possible with the same PC models and components, which promise a high level reliability and a reduction of support cost as a result. Compared to the consumer market, a business PC has a closely defined life cycle: A system considered by business customers needs to be available in one and the same configuration for at least 12 months and support needs to be available for at least another 24 months thereafter.

The Business Platform strategy clearly won't take over the market overnight. It may take several years until the program logo will be widely established and its meaning recognized. But a combination of AMD's increasing traction in the business segment with Nvidia's 70% share in the business workstation market may help to create a stronger product that is able to challenge Intel in this market segment.

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