Intel has been eyeing the lucrative mobile space for years, and is now ready to seriously compete against ARM in the hyper-frenetic race for smartphone and tablet market share.
Of course, Santa Clara can’t really set the prices for such devices, as it designs the chips powering x86-based tablets and smartphones, rather than the actual systems themselves.
Nevertheless, Intel obviously has enough clout to “suggest” general guidelines with manufacturers for the first (serious) generation of x86 smartphones and tablets.
According to Fudzilla, the first-gen mobile devices powered by Intel’s Medfield SoC are priced quite competitively with rival ARM chips from companies like Qualcomm, Nvidia and TI.
Indeed, Intel is apparently suggesting the following price points:
* $199 – $299 for smartphones.
* $399 – $499 for tablets.
* $199 – $299 for netbooks.
Meanwhile, hybrid notebooks will stay under the $699 price points, with laptops starting at $3xx and up.
“Probably slightly more than $300, but less than $400 is what they have in mind,” Fuad Abazovic of Fudzilla speculated. “Top notch notebooks based on Core i7 chips will start at less than $799 and Ultrabooks with 11-inch or larger screens might be coming down to $599 to $699. [Clearly], high end models will end up a lot pricier.”
As Liliputing’s Brad Linder points out, Intel’s recommended netbook pricing has certainly come a long way since 2008, with many companies selling their netbooks at a cool $299 or below.
“[And] it looks like Intel is [just] fine with that. The company will presumably price its chips low enough to allow partners to turn a profit even when selling mini-laptops for mini-prices,” Linder added.
