Intel is reportedly planning an aggressive pricing strategy for its Cedar Trail CPU lineup. Unnamed sources from netbook makers have told DigiTimes the chips will sell for as low as $42 to $47, which would effectively undercut the current entry price for Atom processors by 30 to 50 percent. Companies are said to be paying between $64 and $86 for the N400- and N500-series offerings.
The pricing shift is said to be a result of the changing market, as tablet PCs continue to compete with netbooks. Many companies are reportedly changing their netbook strategies to focus on emerging markets, where Cedar Trail-based models will be sold for $199 to $299.
Alongside the price savings, the dual-core Cedar Trail components are also bringing improvements in performance and power consumption. The 1.6GHz N2600 will offer two Hyperthreading cores paired with GMA graphics running at 400MHz, while the 1.86GHz N2800 steps up to CMA 3650 graphics running at 640MHz.
The first Cedar Trail processors are expected to arrive sometime this winter.
