ATI to market Radeon 9550 graphics card globally

@ 2004/05/11
ATI Technologies will start shipping its “Chinese-only” Radeon 9550 graphics cards outside the China market, according to company sources.

Radeon 9550 series graphics cards were originally meant to be sold only in China. However, the company decided to broaden its sales scope to include other markets such as Europe and North America due to satisfactory uptake in China, the sources added. The Radeon 9550 card will probably be priced around US$80, according to a recent report from the Inquirer.

Sources from Taiwan motherboard makers suggested that the release of the Radeon 9550 cards to other markets might affect sales of Radeon 9600 SE cards. The sources point out that while the FOB (free on board) price of the Radeon 9550 is US$5 higher than the Radeon 9600 SE at US$65 per unit, the 9550 offers higher performance with double the memory bandwidth.

Comment from Sidney @ 2004/05/12
FOB = Freight On Board
Similar to customer pays freight.