Intel may want to believe that its Ultrabooks will clock in at under $1,000, but PC manufacturers beg to differ.
Indeed, high-ranking execs from both Acer and Compal Electronics have asked Intel to help them meet the $1,000 price point by subsidizing CPU prices.
Intel has yet to approve the plaintive requests, prompting Scott Lin, president of Acer Taiwan, to reportedly say that his company will adopt a lower-end processor or reduce component specifications to meet the sub-$1,000 price goal.
Although Intel apparently hopes 40% of consumer notebooks will be super-light Ultrabooks in the future, Ray Chen, president of Compal Electronics, emphasized that Santa Clara is unlikely to achieve its goal with current pricing.
“He added that if Ultrabooks suffer from weak sales, while Apple continues to enjoy strong profit, the WinTel alliance will need to do something or else all the related IT player may be gone together,” claimed DigiTimes.
As AppleInsider’s Sam Oliver notes, price issues have been a recurring theme in the Ultrabook saga because PC manufacturers have failed to effectively match the pricing on Apple’s MacBook Air lineup.
To be sure, the low-end, 11.6-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, while Asustek’s 13.3-inch UX31 Ultrabook weighs in at a hefty $1,600.
