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Questionable Marketing Practices
I know that the first post from someone can define the person, but when you see my frustration you can see why.
I am a Matrox Solutions Provider. I have been a very loyal Matrox promoter to my clients for years, despite some poor performance from the cards. The strongest part of Matrox has always been they kept (or use to) their promises and delivered solid and reliable drivers on a regular basis.
Something has happened though that has lead me to seriously reconsider Matrox, and it is highly possible that this month will end my long term support with Matrox (please note I do not work for or receive any money or other form of payment from other graphic companies - I simply shoot straight and don't hold back, and I am beholdent to none)
1. Drivers - Having most of my clients using the Marvel G200, I have had a chance to see the decline in the driver support. Of course having new drivers every month does not make a card better, but it shows that problems or enhancements are being addressed. Since the Marvel was released back in July/August of 1998, there have been technically 3 official drivers releases. The first came with the card, then 4.33 in April of 1999, and finally 5.25/5.3 in August-October of 1999. Taking over six months to deliver a driver compared to the industry average of about 3.5 months for new releases (to take into account Direct X changes and bugs in various programs). The Marvel might be the "Swiss Army Knife" of video cards, but Matrox is supplying limited cleaning and polishing agent to prevent the knife from rusting or going dull. This could be a sign that Matrox is underfunding their Driver Development????
2 Promises Made Promises Broken - Everyone who has been involved with Graphic Cards know the long and embarassing history of Matrox and OpenGL. They made promises on their product to deliver a OpenGL driver after purchase. Well even after speaking to a company representative (lets just say he was a high level manager) last month, I was told that they delivered as promised. What they delivered was a tailor made driver for only a limited software base. I don't called that delivering on a promise. They insisted it was the full opengl. The most recent comments on the GL driver for the G400 has been summarized on several sites, from Matrox, saying that Matrox will only be tailoring its drivers for "Game Specific Titles" like Quake 2,3 and one or two other titles. No professional level support. This breaks the faith of a buyer who buys a product with a promise to have the proper items delivered when available. One again where are they cutting corners? Is there a serious problem with the Gxxx chipset? Did they give you performance in one location but sacrifice the OpenGL capabilities? No matter the excuse they failed to deliver as promised. They sold many on something they apparently never have intended to fix, but they continue to publish it on their products, while other brands advertise their OpenGL and they deliver.
3. Product Availability - For the Matrox reps reading this, take notice, you are only hurting yourself with the lack of supply of your graphic cards in the retail chain or is it something else. For those watching the various retailers, several big name companies have stopped selling Matrox products. Others have made plans to phase out the stock they have and never restock. See my next comments regarding their marketing tactics. Coming back, stores like Compusa, Best Buy, PC Connection, and PC Mall all have either stopped selling or phasing out. Compusa stopped carrying the product all together. Matrox has blamed some marketing problem or contract disagreement with Compusa, but I feel it was more than that. Matrox is blaming the current shortage of the G400 Max on their distributor, Ingram Micro. Once again some contract dispute lead to Matrox not shipping the products to Ingram, according to several individuals at Matrox. So companies all over continue to wait for the product to be delivered. But wait you can buy it if you are willing to pay $50 plus over the going market rate if they were shipped. They have switched to a new distrubtor, but no company is aware of this.
I don't know how Matrox (maybe being up north does things to common sense) but by the time Matrox gets the G400 Max in general distribution we will be on the Voodoo 5 and Nvidia GeForce 512 or whatever. Since the graphic card cycle is about 6 months, Matrox is going to face the same problems ATI did. They delivered a product after the market had already moved on to the next generation. Matrox was warned in many reviews, that if they fail to get the product in the retail chain quick enough this will do the G400 cards in, and sure enough they failed to get the cards out there.
As a consultant, it is hard to promote a card you can't get (of course I can pay a premium but why). I have had many clients ask what has happened. They have found places but the prices are always higher than the market rate. The product has appeared overseas, so the product is out there. Amazing their online store seems to have an ample supply.
Right now the GeForce 256 is knocking on the door as well as the Voodoo 4 in the next few months. I am not saying who has the best card, but who wants to buy yesterdays technology. Would you buy a card whose technology is surpassed by faster, cheaper, more flexible products? If you are a bargin hunter, yes, but if you need a product that will carry you forward, you want current technology not yesterdays. Matrox needs to re-evaluate their distribution before they lose more customers to their competitors.
I have been trying to get at least one through the dealer demonstration/Solutions Provider program for several months. In the last two weeks I have been promised the form was being printed up and they would be delivered soon. Once again, why does it take such a long time to create a form. I was in the military for six years, and despite all the aged equipment we used I had no problem getting forms out in a day and printed. What is the reason it takes so long for Matrox to produce these forms? Instead of making the form the only way to order, they should at least try to speed up the process with a temp form so these units can get out to solutions providers to demonstrate a product that you can't get in the stores, only through Matrox or other Premium Providers. I like the program but not being able to even get a product to demonstrate makes it hard to promote a product.
4. Questionable Marketing Tactics - I can't say for sure, and this is only speculation, not a direct charge, but the selling tactics used on the G400 Max opens a whole slew of questions. Why is it that the Matrox store has the units in stock, when major retailers can't? Many of those who can't stock the product are selling it below Matrox MSRP and Online store price. Some retailers who are selling it for above the Matrox price, seem to have a limited number on hand. For someone looking from the outside in, it creates many questions. Without directly accusing the company, but isn't it odd that Matrox has the Max but only in their store at a higher than market price????? If this was intended to be a limited release product, they once again had an obligation to present this information to the community at large as well as retailers so people would know how to get it. When you look at the Marvel G400, it has additional features, but 16mb less memory about 60 less Ramdac, but cost only $40 more than the Max? Look at the Marvel G200, now selling on their site for 279, only $20 more than the Max? What exactly is going on. It almost looks as if Matrox is leveraging the books on selling some items at lower cost, and hitting the other products with a higher margin of profit. It is easy to churn out the "Vanilla" G400, sell it at a low cost, that encourages people to buy it. This might work for Intel (Celeron vs Pentium II and III) but in the graphics industry where there are choices, this simply can't work. Maybe there is a perfect explanation for all of this, if so, then Matrox should get out there and present this to the users.
5. Technical Support - Matrox use to provide a high quality support service. Now it is more inline with a company that works out of a garage than a top of the line hardware maker. Even the support provided in the priority que for Solutions provider leaves much to be desired.
Take the web site. It is so amazing when you use the wizard, that the only items that have problems are with I think Avid Cinema, Asus P2B v1.0, and three to five other items. This doesn't mean that Matrox isn't making a good card that they have few problems, but I would think they would provide a larger database of knowledge. Don't bother doing a search, all you will get are the press releases or marketing information on the products. Once again this is an example where Matrox appears to be cutting corners. They should work on providing an in-depth on comprehensive online support site. Even these small shareware companies provide a more in-depth knowledge base.
One problem I called on is something that is happening to a majority of my clients. Even with my knowledge I have been unsuccessful in solving. Their solution, use your older drivers till we can find a fix. What happened to those two months of Beta Testing. I know that there are so many combinations out there that no company can test everything. But these problems can be overlooked or ignored.
Conclusion:
I don't know what is happening up north with Matrox. Once a company that could be relied on for deliver a solid product for a fair price with excellent support, it has now been flipped over 180%. They have products that are near difficult to find except at a premium (yes I know Supply and Demand has some influence on price, but is that how they are able to charge more and earn more on units they sell from their store, by releasing very few to the retailers???). Their drivers are being updated less often, with bugs, and long periods of beta testing. They have technical support that is no better than a help file or readme file. They make promises they apparently have no intention on keeping, or hope that they maybe can pull off a miracle and develop this promise that they couldn't get ready to ship.
I look forward to hearing responses from others or from those who are in the "Inside" of Matrox. Please feel free to post to my response or to my e-mail.
Thank you.
Tim Barnes
President
Barnes and Associates
Matrox Solutions Provider
I am a Matrox Solutions Provider. I have been a very loyal Matrox promoter to my clients for years, despite some poor performance from the cards. The strongest part of Matrox has always been they kept (or use to) their promises and delivered solid and reliable drivers on a regular basis.
Something has happened though that has lead me to seriously reconsider Matrox, and it is highly possible that this month will end my long term support with Matrox (please note I do not work for or receive any money or other form of payment from other graphic companies - I simply shoot straight and don't hold back, and I am beholdent to none)
1. Drivers - Having most of my clients using the Marvel G200, I have had a chance to see the decline in the driver support. Of course having new drivers every month does not make a card better, but it shows that problems or enhancements are being addressed. Since the Marvel was released back in July/August of 1998, there have been technically 3 official drivers releases. The first came with the card, then 4.33 in April of 1999, and finally 5.25/5.3 in August-October of 1999. Taking over six months to deliver a driver compared to the industry average of about 3.5 months for new releases (to take into account Direct X changes and bugs in various programs). The Marvel might be the "Swiss Army Knife" of video cards, but Matrox is supplying limited cleaning and polishing agent to prevent the knife from rusting or going dull. This could be a sign that Matrox is underfunding their Driver Development????
2 Promises Made Promises Broken - Everyone who has been involved with Graphic Cards know the long and embarassing history of Matrox and OpenGL. They made promises on their product to deliver a OpenGL driver after purchase. Well even after speaking to a company representative (lets just say he was a high level manager) last month, I was told that they delivered as promised. What they delivered was a tailor made driver for only a limited software base. I don't called that delivering on a promise. They insisted it was the full opengl. The most recent comments on the GL driver for the G400 has been summarized on several sites, from Matrox, saying that Matrox will only be tailoring its drivers for "Game Specific Titles" like Quake 2,3 and one or two other titles. No professional level support. This breaks the faith of a buyer who buys a product with a promise to have the proper items delivered when available. One again where are they cutting corners? Is there a serious problem with the Gxxx chipset? Did they give you performance in one location but sacrifice the OpenGL capabilities? No matter the excuse they failed to deliver as promised. They sold many on something they apparently never have intended to fix, but they continue to publish it on their products, while other brands advertise their OpenGL and they deliver.
3. Product Availability - For the Matrox reps reading this, take notice, you are only hurting yourself with the lack of supply of your graphic cards in the retail chain or is it something else. For those watching the various retailers, several big name companies have stopped selling Matrox products. Others have made plans to phase out the stock they have and never restock. See my next comments regarding their marketing tactics. Coming back, stores like Compusa, Best Buy, PC Connection, and PC Mall all have either stopped selling or phasing out. Compusa stopped carrying the product all together. Matrox has blamed some marketing problem or contract disagreement with Compusa, but I feel it was more than that. Matrox is blaming the current shortage of the G400 Max on their distributor, Ingram Micro. Once again some contract dispute lead to Matrox not shipping the products to Ingram, according to several individuals at Matrox. So companies all over continue to wait for the product to be delivered. But wait you can buy it if you are willing to pay $50 plus over the going market rate if they were shipped. They have switched to a new distrubtor, but no company is aware of this.
I don't know how Matrox (maybe being up north does things to common sense) but by the time Matrox gets the G400 Max in general distribution we will be on the Voodoo 5 and Nvidia GeForce 512 or whatever. Since the graphic card cycle is about 6 months, Matrox is going to face the same problems ATI did. They delivered a product after the market had already moved on to the next generation. Matrox was warned in many reviews, that if they fail to get the product in the retail chain quick enough this will do the G400 cards in, and sure enough they failed to get the cards out there.
As a consultant, it is hard to promote a card you can't get (of course I can pay a premium but why). I have had many clients ask what has happened. They have found places but the prices are always higher than the market rate. The product has appeared overseas, so the product is out there. Amazing their online store seems to have an ample supply.
Right now the GeForce 256 is knocking on the door as well as the Voodoo 4 in the next few months. I am not saying who has the best card, but who wants to buy yesterdays technology. Would you buy a card whose technology is surpassed by faster, cheaper, more flexible products? If you are a bargin hunter, yes, but if you need a product that will carry you forward, you want current technology not yesterdays. Matrox needs to re-evaluate their distribution before they lose more customers to their competitors.
I have been trying to get at least one through the dealer demonstration/Solutions Provider program for several months. In the last two weeks I have been promised the form was being printed up and they would be delivered soon. Once again, why does it take such a long time to create a form. I was in the military for six years, and despite all the aged equipment we used I had no problem getting forms out in a day and printed. What is the reason it takes so long for Matrox to produce these forms? Instead of making the form the only way to order, they should at least try to speed up the process with a temp form so these units can get out to solutions providers to demonstrate a product that you can't get in the stores, only through Matrox or other Premium Providers. I like the program but not being able to even get a product to demonstrate makes it hard to promote a product.
4. Questionable Marketing Tactics - I can't say for sure, and this is only speculation, not a direct charge, but the selling tactics used on the G400 Max opens a whole slew of questions. Why is it that the Matrox store has the units in stock, when major retailers can't? Many of those who can't stock the product are selling it below Matrox MSRP and Online store price. Some retailers who are selling it for above the Matrox price, seem to have a limited number on hand. For someone looking from the outside in, it creates many questions. Without directly accusing the company, but isn't it odd that Matrox has the Max but only in their store at a higher than market price????? If this was intended to be a limited release product, they once again had an obligation to present this information to the community at large as well as retailers so people would know how to get it. When you look at the Marvel G400, it has additional features, but 16mb less memory about 60 less Ramdac, but cost only $40 more than the Max? Look at the Marvel G200, now selling on their site for 279, only $20 more than the Max? What exactly is going on. It almost looks as if Matrox is leveraging the books on selling some items at lower cost, and hitting the other products with a higher margin of profit. It is easy to churn out the "Vanilla" G400, sell it at a low cost, that encourages people to buy it. This might work for Intel (Celeron vs Pentium II and III) but in the graphics industry where there are choices, this simply can't work. Maybe there is a perfect explanation for all of this, if so, then Matrox should get out there and present this to the users.
5. Technical Support - Matrox use to provide a high quality support service. Now it is more inline with a company that works out of a garage than a top of the line hardware maker. Even the support provided in the priority que for Solutions provider leaves much to be desired.
Take the web site. It is so amazing when you use the wizard, that the only items that have problems are with I think Avid Cinema, Asus P2B v1.0, and three to five other items. This doesn't mean that Matrox isn't making a good card that they have few problems, but I would think they would provide a larger database of knowledge. Don't bother doing a search, all you will get are the press releases or marketing information on the products. Once again this is an example where Matrox appears to be cutting corners. They should work on providing an in-depth on comprehensive online support site. Even these small shareware companies provide a more in-depth knowledge base.
One problem I called on is something that is happening to a majority of my clients. Even with my knowledge I have been unsuccessful in solving. Their solution, use your older drivers till we can find a fix. What happened to those two months of Beta Testing. I know that there are so many combinations out there that no company can test everything. But these problems can be overlooked or ignored.
Conclusion:
I don't know what is happening up north with Matrox. Once a company that could be relied on for deliver a solid product for a fair price with excellent support, it has now been flipped over 180%. They have products that are near difficult to find except at a premium (yes I know Supply and Demand has some influence on price, but is that how they are able to charge more and earn more on units they sell from their store, by releasing very few to the retailers???). Their drivers are being updated less often, with bugs, and long periods of beta testing. They have technical support that is no better than a help file or readme file. They make promises they apparently have no intention on keeping, or hope that they maybe can pull off a miracle and develop this promise that they couldn't get ready to ship.
I look forward to hearing responses from others or from those who are in the "Inside" of Matrox. Please feel free to post to my response or to my e-mail.
Thank you.
Tim Barnes
President
Barnes and Associates
Matrox Solutions Provider
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