Intel Says CPU Prices Irrelevant in Ultrabooks
Intel sees pricing of ultrabooks as a major barrier for the adoption of this evolutionary notebook form factor.
An Intel executive recently called for an industry-wide effort to bring the prices of the devices down and indicated that it will not be up to the chipmaker to hit price points that resonate with consumers.
"More work needs to happen in the ecosystem. Even if we're giving the chips away for free, we couldn't hit the price point we want to hit if we don't work with the rest of the industry," vice president of sales and marketing and general manager for the Asia-Pacific region Navin Shenoy told Reuters in an interview.
That is a bold statement that may not sit too well with some of Intel's best customers, who are scrambling to get ultrabooks out for retail prices of less than $1000, which means that the actual cost to build those devices is somewhere in the $600 to $700 range.
According to Shenoy, about 40 percent of the consumer PC market may be occupied by ultrabooks by the end of next year, but this price-aggressive approach indicates that all Intel may be shooting for is a replacement of an existing market and not the opening of a new market - or a future market that builds on currently evolving trends, such as touch input models. As thin as ultrabooks are, they still follow the same general idea the original notebook, the 1984 Compaq LTE had: a keyboard and an attached screen. Touch never made sense on mainstream notebooks before and I would express some doubt that touch will suddenly make sense if notebooks are simply as thin as a Macbook Air, which the ultrabook trend aims to replicate.
Is Intel trying to tell us that nobody can do it cheaper than Apple?
lol.
U can be 100% sure that in every computer u own there is something made by a Chinese worker, who's woefully underpaid by western standards.
Doesn't mean it's slave labour though. The guys at Foxconn earn decent money by Chinese standards.
40 percent?!?!?
Maybe if they sold for under $600 and became a replacement for low-end notebooks.
I just don't see the need for a super-netbook in a world where tablets are becoming the media-consumption device of choice.
(More likely, Intel will have a sliding price that keeps Ultrabooks hovering at the target price).
Same for the iPad. The Apple competitors can't meet Apple prices. Hmm....
Its everything about price.
Who the hell wants a laptop less powerfull and more expensive just becasue its little thinner? Its just dumb
Is Intel trying to tell us that nobody can do it cheaper than Apple?
lol.
U can be 100% sure that in every computer u own there is something made by a Chinese worker, who's woefully underpaid by western standards.
Doesn't mean it's slave labour though. The guys at Foxconn earn decent money by Chinese standards.
Chill i know that .. actually every giant in the world uses cheap labor ...was more like a joke but still ... something is not being payed much so that apple can still produce something "cheap" and get shit loads of profit after it anyway.
I think that there is a significant market for the Ultrabook. I would much rather have a higher quality PC based Macbook air with an i7 then any tablet device. Just my preferred method of interface.
-CB
Ok, I'll bite. Amazon Kindle Fire android tablet $199.99 - iPad $499.99
You do have to consider though that the Kindle Fire is going to be subsidized by ads and ebook purchases. I think I read that Amazon is going to lose money on the sale of the device itself.
Also, the Fire is a far inferior device in terms of every spec.
That said, I'd rather have 2 Kindle Fires and a steak dinner than an iPad.