It’s been one week since the launch of “Fusion” – a good time to take a look back to see how it went.

First – I know this is a little “inside baseball” but I would like to thank the teams at AMD for flawlessly executing one of the most integrated launches I have ever been involved with. From the Web assets to print ad deliverables and site collateral in airports and AMD locations around the world, if you can think of it, they did it. Nice job team!

Second, to the AMD Fusion for Gaming utility team – I love you! Too often, brand launches can tend to be “all sizzle and no steak,” but this utility is a great way to make the concept behind Fusion a little more real to consumers of AMD-powered computers.

How real? I was on a plane this week and, “hit the button.” The utility added another hour to my laptop’s stated battery life. Not sure I would have got it all (and you may experience different results based on your specific machine and usage habits) but it was enough for me to work for the duration of the flight (and before you ask, I didn’t start with a full battery!).

Next – to the market feedback. Actually I am pretty pleased people got the message that the essence of “Fusion” is about three things: the way we combine technology, the way we collaborate with our partners and the way we influence the industry. People also seemed to get the 64-bit and multi-core leadership proof points. Yes, there were some off-base bits from some ‘fanboys’ and others as well as some who just didn’t get it but those were in the distinct minority.

I’m particularly chuffed about two big discussion threads I now see developing that I think our Fusion launch have helped spark:

1.       The importance of the user experience to the next generation of buyers – whether client or server.

2.       Credit that AMD is a leading change agent in this industry, and will continue to be – we did x86 64-bit first, we did multi-core first (and properly), we did the teraFLOPs graphics cards first and the list goes on; and I expect that the list will continue to expand into the future.

Finally, to borrow a thought from Churchill, this is not the end, it’s not the beginning of the end, and it’s just the end of the beginning. Fusion is an idea for the next couple of years. Let me quote from the manifesto we published:

“Fusion. It’s the energy of innovation. It’s what’s fueled our past, and what will drive our people and partners in the future. To learn more about the innovation, the future, and Fusion, visit fusion.amd.com.”

Nigel Dessau is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.