Ultrabook Prices To Drop In Price 5-10% In Q1 2012?

DigiTimes and its mysterious sources are at it again with a new tip that Ultrabooks will get a bit cheaper early next year. The publication cites industry sources claiming that the price of an Ultrabook will fall by 5-10% in Q1 2012. That would put most of the Ultrabooks at the sub-$1000 range that they were originally promised at.

Some of the machines on the market in the Ultrabook segment are already at that under $1000 price range. The price cut isn't coming from cheaper hardware or anything like that; it's coming from a subsidy offered by Intel. Apparently, the Ultrabook hasn't been as popular as Intel had hoped. Intel will offer a $100 marketing subsidy starting in the Q1 period.

The tip about the marketing subsidy comes from sources in the Taiwan supply chain. The finger is still being pointed at the high cost of processors, SSDs, and other components as the reason many of the machines are not below $1000 in price yet. The CPU alone costs $175 to $200, the SSD $140 to $150, and the display panel is $45-$50. We went hands on with the Asus Zenbooks not too long ago, which were some of the first Ultrabooks on the market.

[via DigiTimes]