Over the Black Friday sales, and the past few months in general, the price of touchscreen notebooks has been plummeting to prices as low as £150 ($100). Part of this dramatic price reduction is due to the way Microsoft changed its licensing costs for sub-11.6 inch devices back in early 2013. Another contribution to the tumbling prices comes from Intel's Bay Trail Atom CPUs which can be had for as low as $17.
Interestingly, it seems there is now a third component contributing to these discounted prices. Digitimes reports that touchscreen clamshell-type notebooks will be phased out from the market next year resulting in the channel undertaking a stock clearance. A combination of almost non-existent profit margins and mediocre demand has resulted in inventory orders nearly vanishing completely. Industry sources expect that once the current wave of channel stock is cleared, it will not be renewed.
A new focus is anticipated among notebook-makers on conventional 'touchscreenless' notebooks as well as so-called '2 in 1' devices that simultaneously switch between a notebook and tablet device by (re)attaching a keyboard dock. The broad focus will still be on pushing inexpensive notebooks to help boost sales figures, though such a strategy is unlikely to fix narrow profit margins that are forcing vendors towards volume sales strategies.
