Matrox market share drops again.

[DGhost]

it would appear to me that closing the forums outside of business hours is a move meant to keep shit piling up on their door - it's happened several times when something happens on friday or saturday and the whole Matrox community is pounding down doors to get answers when they open monday.

as far as Matrox is concerned... yes, they have other branches that are profitable. the graphics portion has faltered. if they decide to pull the provibial rabbit out of a hat they still could possibly if someone high up decided to put funds into it.

[VJ]

I can understand why they close the forums on weekends. But not so long ago it was at least possible to read them (only posting was prevented). Now, it is not even possible to read them, so using the forums as a resource when troubleshooting something in the weekend is not even possible.

Matrox still has other markets where they excel, just check out this thread:

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?t=51799

Similarly, in medical imaging, they also are highly regarded.


However, they have dropped the ball on the home user market: from a conceptional point of view, the Parhelia is a great card, but it had some practical issues. As a result, there were many problems (3D speed, linux support - allthough it can handle 3 independant resolutions in Linux due to a hack in their drivers, ...). Matrox cards have never been cheap, but by dropping the ball, the higher price wasn't as justified as it used to be.
And, as is often the case when a company makes a serious error, they need time to recover from that.
Matrox is IMO still suffering the consequences, and has fallen back to damage control for the time being (putting the card up for as many uses as possible, in order to minimize losses); which is the reasonable thing to do. No point in trying new stuff with far too limited resources, as another failure at this point would result in real problems.
They just have to sweat it out, wait a bit longer, and hopefully when the time is right give it another go. Seeing as how things evolve, I don't think there is any point for them to develop a card that suits the current standard (i.e. DirectX 9), when DirectX 10 is already appearing on the horizon: any development they would do now would be wasted (product would be too late, and enter a market with a lot of "known" names).
All we can hope for is that after the "damage control" period, they will start to develop new stuff again (hopefully in time to meet the standards of that day).

Sure, the competition is catching / has catched up with them when it comes to analog quality, but even the old Matrox cards outperform many new (other brand) cards when it comes to features as multidisplay and tv-output. I have little doubt in my mind that with their current knowhow, and a bit more time, they can make cards that appeal to home users (HTPC is just one usage comes to mind, but I'm hoping they could suprise us).


I'm not willing to give up on Matrox just yet. When I needed a video card last year, the only one that actually satisfied my needs was a Parhelia (even though it was a couple of years older than other cards I considered). Clearly, they must have done some things right in the past, and with their trackrecord of innovation, I doubt it will end here.


Jörg

[Haig]

When I had the forums open for just browsing on the weekends, I had many
complaints on the Monday from clients about why they were allowed to
type in their problem but then lose everything that they typed when they
tried to submit the post, eventhough the forums hours are stated on the main page.

Had an average of 42 complaints on the following Monday.

Closing the forum down removed all those complaints and now I get an average of .81 complaint on the following Monday as to why the forums are disabled.

[Kurt]

@UtwigMU: Matrox Electronic Systems is what? Group or branch?

[VJ]

When I had the forums open for just browsing on the weekends, I had many complaints on the Monday from clients about why they were allowed to
type in their problem but then lose everything that they typed when they
tried to submit the post, eventhough the forums hours are stated on the main page.

Is there no option that prevents people from typing their problem?



Jörg

[Umfriend]

@UtwigMU: Matrox Electronic Systems is what? Group or branch?

Good question. As I indicated before, I doubt that this is the whole company. Furthermore I note there is no souce indicated for the numbers, which is bad form unless they're your own estimates....

[xortam]

Is there no option that prevents people from typing their problem? ...

That would take more resources.

... Sorry for blowing up on you xortam. I love my Matrox card, and it still does stuff that no other card can do. So when someone says something like "Who cares about Matrox anymore?", it can get me going. ...

Look to the Vulcans for their skill in suppressing emotions. Logic will carry you further in all but the frivolous forums on this site. Many of us feel the pain from the blunders at Matrox and/or their considered redirections away from the consumer market.

Most of us were attracted to this site because of its support of Matrox graphics cards. This was the best source of info before Matrox opened their own TS forums (some may argue it still is). As you can see, even Haig (Matrox TS mgr) still visits our humble site. BTW, Haig is one of the good guys and has done quite a bit for us, but he only has so much influence at Matrox.

[The PIT]

Ah the good old days. The Analogue cable. The ability to say to Nvidea twits. Yeh you get 5fps more than us but at least we can see where we going. Don't our graphics look great.
The launch of Turbo GL that got Joel bragging on Nvidea forums to wind em up.
The promise of the G800 that arrived so late and so watered down.
One shreds a little tear.

[Mikko]

I think Matrox still has talent in their Hardware Group and PCB design. Just look at the Millennium P650 Low-Profile PCI (Dual-DVI) or QID Low-Profile PCI/PCIe x16 (Quad-DVI). You just can't make these cards without experienced personel... Does ATI/NVIDIA even have these kind of cards yet?

I think Matrox has enough talent, but it won't benefit home users if they've decided to aim for corporate clients/niche markets only.

[Wombat]

I think Matrox still has talent in their Hardware Group and PCB design. Just look at the Millennium P650 Low-Profile PCI (Dual-DVI) or QID Low-Profile PCI/PCIe x16 (Quad-DVI). You just can't make these cards without experienced personel...

Too bad Matrox has laid off almost everybody.

[xortam]

... and why do you think the competitors have done so much better with analog and multi-monitor support? Could it have something to do with obtaining ex-Matrox engineers?

[Mikko]

... and why do you think the competitors have done so much better with analog and multi-monitor support? Could it have something to do with obtaining ex-Matrox engineers?

Well, forgive me, but I just don't understand why ATI/NVIDIA still hasn't released their card for triplehead/Surround Gaming, almost three years after Parhelia. Markets are there to be taken. Maybe they don't take those ex-Matrox engineers seriously...

[Sasq]

or maybe they are using them on product lines that earn more money then the gaming segment.

[DGhost]

Well, forgive me, but I just don't understand why ATI/NVIDIA still hasn't released their card for triplehead/Surround Gaming, almost three years after Parhelia. Markets are there to be taken. Maybe they don't take those ex-Matrox engineers seriously...

maybe it's because there really isn't that much of a market for Surround Gaming? and that there are cheaper solutions to triple head for those that need them?

[xortam]

Well, forgive me, but I just don't understand why ATI/NVIDIA still hasn't released their card for triplehead/Surround Gaming, almost three years after Parhelia. Markets are there to be taken. Maybe they don't take those ex-Matrox engineers seriously...

What's the market for that application? Perhaps they don't see the ROI from pursuing that small market right now.

(oops .. you guys beat me to it. Didn't see the last posts in this threaded view).