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Intel Atom based Windows 8 touch devices to start at $200

by Mark Tyson on 17 April 2013, 14:45

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Windows 8

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Currently if you want an Intel powered touchscreen tablet packing Windows 8 you are looking at prices approaching £400 (the ASUS VivoTab ME400 for example). That’s a significant chunk of cash more than a similar 10-inch Android/ARM powered tablet by a big name such as Samsung. It’s also quite a lot more than a good selection of Google Chromebooks.

A major part of the pricing differences may well be accounted for by Microsoft’s charging for the Windows 8 OS. However Intel’s pricing strategy probably also has something to do with the higher prices, as CEO Paul Otellini is in the news today teasing that the price of Windows 8 touch enabled devices, including laptops, are set to tumble with the release of the next generation of Atom processors.

“If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin... Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200” said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in the investors conference call we reported on this morning. The new designs, including tablets, will based upon Intel’s next Atom range; the quad-core Bay Trail processors.

As well as the lower price points that have been predicted, a quad-core Bay Trail is said to offer quite a lot more poke in the performance department, potentially “doubling the computing performance of Intel's current-generation tablet offering” according to Cnet sources at Intel China. Further benefits offered by Bay Trail include the facilitation of designs “as thin as 8mm (0.3 inches) that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby”.

Also participating in the conference call, Intel’s CFO Stacy Smith, boasted “Bay Trail is going to be a great product in that segment of the market and enable stunning performance relative to what the competition can bring”.

Neither the CEO or CFO mentioned screen size in the cut-price equation but it is expected some of the savings made, to reach down to the $200 price point, would be achieved by targeting the popular 7-inch screen size. Such attractively priced Windows 8 devices aren’t expected to be in retail until “the holiday season”.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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I don't hold much hope for the rest of the hardware if you can fit an Atom SoC and Windows 8 into $200 and still make a profit…
watercooled
I don't hold much hope for the rest of the hardware if you can fit an Atom SoC and Windows 8 into $200 and still make a profit…

MS are offering lower licensing costs on smaller devices too
How much lower though? $200 - Atom doesn't leave much for hardware alone.
This is the price point Windows RT tablets should really be occupying -

There's a million ARM based tablets sub $200, but none using microsoft…
Margins would be rather thin I imagine, even RT has some pretty steep storage requirements compared to Android.

A cheap Atom powered Ubuntu device might be cool though.