What follows will probably not sit well with all those AMD fans who were expecting the Sunnyvale-based company to put out a new CPU to compete with Intel's Atom in the netbook market. Sad but true: according to the statements of one of the company's officials, AMD is not going to release a low-power, low-cost CPU designed for devices such as netbooks or nettops. At least, not right now.

Instead, the chip manufacturer will to take a more observatory approach and will stay out of the netbook market for the time being. According to a statement by the company's Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Dessau, AMD plans to stand aside and watch the netbook market as it continues to develop.

"We are not saying it's not an important segment and we're not saying it's not a growing segment," Dessau explained. "What we are saying is that we are a smaller company and we have to focus on what we do well at this point. We are watching that segment rather than playing in it, but as it matures we'll see where it goes. At this moment, we are going to focus on what we do best."

Dessau, who has occupied the position of senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD since March, appears to go against the statements made by the company's new CEO, Dirk Meyer. As we already told you, earlier this week, Meyer hinted that AMD might add a new chip to its roadmap, that would be designed specifically for this market. The chip, rumored to be codenamed "Bobcat," was supposed to be released sometime before the end of the year or in early 2009.

One of the reasons behind Dessau's recent statements could be found in the significantly low Q2 results the company announced. On the other hand, AMD is known for its experience in the low-power processors area, thanks to its Geode chip. A follow-up to the Geode could explain what stood at the basis of Dirk Meyer's statements.