IMG: Giga Designs appeared out of the blue at Macworld San Francisco 2003. Can you tell us who you are and what your mission statement is?Tim Ericksen: Giga Designs is a company dedicated to enhancing the computing experience of the MAC OS user. Our goal is to provide performance and reliability, while exceeding our customer's expectation of value.
IMG: Several CPU upgrade makers have gone out of business in the past few years and Sonnet and PowerLogix are in fierce competition. Why did Giga Designs decide to enter this market?
Tim Ericksen: We believe there is always room for well engineered quality products in the marketplace; and we have confidence in our business model.
IMG: Why should Mac users choose Giga Designs over your competitors?
Tim Ericksen: By placing attention on practical engineering concerns, like power supply quality and thermal performance, we believe that we have created an upgrade that outpaces the competition. Further, we hope to inspire long-term loyalty from our customers by offering upgrade continuity, stability, and the utmost performance; while keeping in sight the overall value proposition. The products we offer are well tested, made of high quality materials, and are easy to install.
IMG: What will Giga Designs do to differentiate their products from others?
Tim Ericksen: We will design and manufacture them to the highest practical quality standards, while providing our customers with the freedom to choose a price point as well as a level of performance. We will also differentiate ourselves with unique products that offer solutions to system bottlenecks, and enhance overall performance.
IMG: Can you tell us anything about your future products (dual CPU upgrades, 1.2 GHz and faster CPUs)?
Tim Ericksen: Our philosophy on dual processor upgrades is simple. If we can supply them for less than $800, we will. Product announcements will be made as we release new designs to manufacturing; which is about 3 weeks prior to shipment. Our future products will continue to increase CPU performance, but we will spend much of our R&D budget and time on other areas of the system as well.
Many thanks to Tim for taking the time to answer our questionnaire. IMG will be publishing a comparison article of Giga Designs' G4/800 MHz and G4/1 GHz CPU upgrades in the near future.
