Below-$700 ultrabooks within the year?

With their use of hybrid disk drives to cut costs, the next generation of Intel-based Ultrabook PCs may sport attractive prices of below $700 later this year.

 

Taiwan-based DigiTimes cited Taiwan-based supply chain makers who said most vendors of the Ultrabooks featuring the Ivy Bridge processors will use the hybrid hard drives to cut costs.

 

"In order to promote Ivy Bridge, Intel will lower processor prices by US$60 to 70 on average, the sources indicated. Because storage devices account for 10 to 15 percent of total notebook production costs, vendors will try to minimize storage costs, the sources noted," DigiTimes reported.

 

DigiTimes said that since hybrid HDDs cost less than 128GB and 256GB SSDs by more than 50 percent, its sources said vendors will use hybrid drives to offer ultrabook models at below $700.

 

It also cited Acer corporate president Jim Wong's prediction that prices for ultrabooks with hybrid HDDs will fall to between $600 and $700 by the fourth quarter of 2012.

 

DigiTimes said its sources had predicted ultrabooks will account for 20 percent of total notebook volumes in 2012, lower than Intel's target of 40 percent.

 

On the other hand, it said Intel declined to comment on the matter, except that it is working closely with customers and partners.

 

"While we cannot comment on rumor and speculation on our future products, we can tell that Intel has not launched its third generation Intel Core processors (codenamed Ivy Bridge) yet, nor has the company announced pricing for these processors," it quoted Intel as saying.

 

"We are working closely with our customers, partners and suppliers to infuse continued innovation into the new category of ultrabook devices and deliver them to consumers at mainstream price points," Intel added. — TJD, GMA News