Intel slashes CPU prices up to 43%, eases 845D mobo inventory pressure
Charles Chou, Taipei; Jane Wang, DigiTimes.com [Tuesday 28 May 2002]
Intel’s formal price reduction of Pentium 4 processors across the board is adding fuel to the flames for 845D motherboard sales and is expected to drive a market rebound in June, report motherboard makers. For chipset suppliers, the speed at which 845D product inventory is cleared would be proportional to the pace of market recovery.
Intel’s current reduction of P4 processor prices will extend from 1.7GHz using 0.18-micron processing to 2.4GHz medium to high-end mainstream products using 0.13 micron processing. Prices for 2.4GHz, 2.26GHz, 2.2GHz, 2.0 GHz, 1.9 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 1.7GHz will be lowered as much as 43% down to US$400, US$241, US$193, US$173, US$163 and US$143, respectively. This move to cut prices has long been viewed by market insiders as key to whether demand for motherboards and PCs will pick up in the third quarter.
Motherboard and chipset makers indicate that the market is currently bogged in a “wait and see” state as demand remains sluggish, awaiting Intel’s price cuts and the arrival of new product launches at the Computex exhibition in Taipei from June 3-7. Intel’s next price quoting after this wave will be on October 27, five months away. Since Intel has not arranged for any more price cuts within this period, market demand should be slowed no more by microprocessor prices for the time being. The next step is to see whether buying sentiment will be triggered at Computex.
Previously, motherboard makers had amassed quite an inventory of Intel 845D discrete chipsets, and while this product supports the FSB 400 MHz-supporting, Socket 478-based Celeron processor, suppliers are still endeavoring to lower inventories. This wave of P4 price cuts is expected to speed up inventory clearing and raise the proportion of 533MHz P4 motherboards launched, thus boosting the market outlook for June.
Chipset suppliers are more conservative, market sources indicate. Intel had previously stuffed the market so much that other suppliers are hard-put to squeeze in their products. In the dearth of new products on the market, shipment demand from motherboard makers is not likely to rise either. The vigorous inventory clear-out by downstream motherboard customers is expected to last into June, meaning that June performance for chipset makers will depend on the force of customers’ 845D inventory clear-out. |
