>> In a "slash and burn" pricing scheme similar to that used to thwart AMD in the 486 to Pentium transistion, Intel has made the pricing of PPRO and Pentium chips nearly transparent.<<
The "slash and burn" pricing will have to wait until after the end of the year. Intel announced that they were forgoing the fall price reductions.
>>If you browse through direct mailing catalogs, or surf the net for vendors with quick inventory and low overhead, you will notice that the Pentium Pro 200mhz/256k chip is less expensive than the Pentium 200mhz chip (at about $699, retail).<<
Who really needs the speed of the PPro at this time? The majority of computer sales are Win95 machines. The most challenging speed intensive applications are games, solid modeling, etc. certainly not word processors or accounting packages. Servers, SQL Servers, CAD workstations, etc. could use the speed, but the average user doesn't. More than likely, the average user will buy a Pentium 166 mhz machine or a Cyrix equivalent.
Also, anyone purchasing a PPro today needs to realize that the 72 pin SIMMS they buy today may not be readily usable in tomorrow's motherboards. ie DIMMS. PCI bus enhancements that are coming next year will match the bus' performance with that of the PPro chip.
I advise most users today to buy the cheapest high-end pentium they can and wait for the next generation of PPro processors and compatible motherboards.
This is just the beginning. People buying Intel won't see the great sales performances until next year. |
