Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2002/07/03/nvidia_hunts_for_euro_disties/

Nvidia hunts for Euro disties

Go NADs!

By Drew Cullen

Posted in Channel, 3rd July 2002 12:58 GMT

Nvidia wants to appoint its first disties in Europe - it's waving marketing development funds, training and collateral for companies willing to become Nvidia Authorised Distributors (NADs).

The catch is that NADs must commit to sourcing Nvidia product from Europe Nvidia Certified Partners only, 14 board manufacturers in toto, sales director Roy Taylor says.

Nvidia-approved board makers commit to building to minimum standards (or better) specified by the chip designer's reference design. "The Far Eastern board makers are good at cutting corners to hit low price points, but we want ensure quality for all our customers.

"Right now there's a lack of quality control in distribution, we just haven't talked to the disties, let alone supported them. The result is that they (the disties) are tending to buy Nvidia from almost anyone rather than our certified partners."

According to Taylor, Nvidia's 14 authorised board makers in Europe are all recording sales gains, winning market share and fending off the Intel integrated graphics threat. "The integrated threat has not happened," he says. "The add-in board market remains strong."

But fact is, the PC market remains crap - look at AMD's sales warning today. And there's only so much market share to be screwed out of the system builders and retail. So that leaves distribution.

Taylor reckons there's a big hole in the market, left by the ATI's retreat from selling its own boards in Europe. "We're looking to speak to any distributor who used to sell ATI and now feels disappointed." ®