Intel Price Cuts Looming

March 21, 2006

Both Forbes and DigiTimes are reporting that Intel will most likely be slashing prices significantly on current Intel Pentium D processors as well as the upcoming Pentium D 960 that we reported on earlier.

“Anticipated price reductions on Intel Pentium D-series CPUs in the third quarter should spur demand for the Intel-developed Viiv digital home platform, as mainstream system prices should be reduced to more affordable levels, said Taiwan PC system makers.
…
After the second round of price reductions, local Taiwan system makers expect mainstream Viiv system prices to be reduced to NT$30,000-35,000 (US$926-1,080), which should help stimulate demand.”

According to DigiTimes, Intel will slash the price of their upcoming Pentium D 960 by about one third, a significant price-drop for a high-end model. This should help spur demand for Intel’s VIIV platform vision. Intel will make out in the long-run though, as Intel’s highly successful Centrino platform has proven. Intel truly is moving horizontally into related markets and merging this into their platform strategy. Soon enough we should be seeing the fruits of the Intel-WiMax initiative as well as Intel works to build an integrated WiMax solution for mobile computers — which I would bet will be mandatory to sport the Centrino brand (or whatever moniker they adopt in the upcoming year).

Oh, while we are on the subject of Intel cutting prices, it should be stated that the Forbes article mentions Intel’s plan to trim prices on the recently released (although hard to buy) Core Duo processors sometime in May.