Intel chips away at prices
Vendor clears stock with massive reductions to make way for range of new processors
Intel has slashed prices across the board as it prepares to get behind new processor lines due this autumn.
The Itanium server line has seen cuts of over 30 per cent, while prices for Intel's fastest business desktop Pentium 4 (P4) processors have fallen by as much as 34.5 per cent, and for mobile Pentium 4 chips by up to a fifth.
But while Intel's fastest business desktop 3.6GHz 560 chip has dropped to $417 when sold in units of a thousand, its fastest desktop processor, the P4 Extreme Edition for gamers, remains unchanged at $999, indicating that some sections of the market are still willing to pay for early adoption.
Intel's Celeron D range of low-cost desktop processors has seen price cuts of a more modest six per cent to 12 per cent.
The chip manufacturer is believed to be clearing the shelves for new launches, with new product announcements expected in the next two months.
Martin Breffit, co-founder of system builder a-sure, said: "This will certainly give a kick start to Intel sales. But it will also affect our reseller base as there is now a significant cost difference between Intel and AMD. When margins are so tight a difference of £10 to £15 can have an effect."
The vendor has also cut the price of its combined 32/64bit chips by more than a third.
"Intel's strategy is to align the prices of individual products to meet the needs of each market segment," the company said. "This is another step towards Intel's goal of delivering Itanium 2-based systems with up to twice the performance of Intel Xeon processor-based systems at the same system cost in 2007."