Visual Computing in Focus AMD's platform shows small businesses a new way to see.
By Jason Ankeny Edited by Frances Dodds
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
No matter how persuasive your pitch or how silver-tongued your spiel, everything sells better if there's something to see. There's even data to back it up: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 80 percent of comprehension occurs via visual input, and people retain 6.5 times more information when visual aids complement verbal interaction.
"In today's world, the best way to communicate is to show," says Bob Grim, director of product marketing for semiconductor giant Advanced Micro Devices, in Sunnyvale, Calif.
To that end, the company's new Vision Pro program is designed specifically for small businesses: It includes support for multiple monitors, video conferencing software and tools to create and view marketing and sales materials incorporating embedded video and 3-D graphics.
Vision Pro even tweaks the visual formula to promote graphics performance to laptop-toting SMBs. The platform includes AMD's M880G and M780G chipsets and its dual-core Turion II Ultra, Turion II, Athlon II series of processors. Notebooks powered by the Vision Pro solution start at $449, Grim says.
Lenovo's new ThinkPad Edge, $579, and ultraportable ThinkPad x100e systems, $449, introduced in January during the annual Consumer Electronics show, both feature the platform. AMD adds it plans to expand the program to desktops later this year.
"People who are in marketing and sales, or in any position where you're trying to drive revenue, are the people who can really benefit from this," Grim says. "Companies that make a compelling visual presentation stand the best chance of succeeding."
