Intel Investors - a 300 MHz Celeron may be Introduced Monday!
Intel will be cutting CPU prices and introducing the "new" 300 Mhz Celeron this coming Monday, according to C|NET.
I believe this is still a cacheless version of the chip (Not Mendocino).
Paul
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New Intel prices, chip due
By Reuters
Special to CNET NEWS.COM
June 4, 1998, 7:40 p.m. PT
URL: news.com
Intel is expected to cut prices Monday on Pentium II processors targeted for use in basic and performance PCs, as it moves to reduce prices more frequently in a sluggish PC market, analysts said.
A spokesman for the Santa Clara, California, company declined to comment on impending price cuts, but he said Intel is now cutting prices more frequently as part of its segmentation strategy.
Price cuts had been expected later from the chipmaker. (Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer Network.)
"Because we have all these products going into new segments, we can't do price adjustments one time during the quarter like we used to do," the Intel spokesman added. Analysts predict price cuts ranging from
15 to 20 percent.
"I predict the price cuts will be in the 15 to 20 percent range," said Michael Feibus, a principal at Mercury Research. "It's to maintain a competitive edge, given how fast
things are moving at the low end of the market."
At this low end--which Intel calls the "basic" PC market, where personal computers
cost less than $1,200--Intel plans to launch a faster version of its Celeron chip.
A new Celeron, running at speeds of 300 MHz, will be launched Monday. The first Celeron, launched in mid-April, runs at 266 MHz. Intel also is expected to cut the price on the first Celeron by about 32 percent, analysts added.
Intel was late to enter the market for low-cost PCs with a specific product line. The sub-$1,000 PC market has been one of the fastest-growing markets, and prices continue to fall.
Just last week, privately held Packard Bell NEC launched a fully featured PC priced just below $700 without a monitor, designed around a processor from Intel rival National Semiconductor's Cyrix unit.
"This is the first time the company has made a price cut in the last month of the quarter," said Ashok Kumar, a Piper Jaffray analyst, who noted that the frequency of price cuts has increased to synchronize with the number of product updates.
Story Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
