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Windows 8 touch devices will dive in price, according to Intel executives.
The price of Windows 8 touch devices, including laptops, will sink to price points that penetrate inexpensive tablet territory. These new "innovative" designs will be based on Intel's upcoming quad-core "Bay Trail" chip, Intel executives said today during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call.
"If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin using [Bay Trail] processors. Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini.
The Bay Trail chip is a complete redesign of the Atom micro architecture and is expected to get Atom chips closer to mainstream Intel chips in performance.
"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," said Stacy Smith, Intel chief financial officer.
Earlier this month, an Intel executive in China said Bay Trail will be "the most powerful Atom processor to-date, doubling the computing performance of Intel's current-generation tablet offering" and will allow designs "as thin as 8mm (0.3 inches) that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby."
Though neither Otellini or Smith mentioned screen size specifically, those price points would imply that at least some devices would use smaller-sized screens.
The competition in the $200 to $300 price range includes Android tablets, such as the 7-inch Nexus 7, using quad-core chips based on the ARM design from companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia.
The Bay Trail chip is expected in products for the holiday season.
Otellini also said he expects more standard ultrabook designs based on the upcoming Haswell chip to come in as low as $499.
source:cnet