Hardware costs may be dividing every year but a dream of $1o0 computer is no where in sight, a senior executive from Intel said. The netbook, which may cost less than half of what a notebook currently sells for, is already “naked” and there is little scope to strip it down further.
“There are no components in the notebook which are much more expensive than the microprocessor. There is the battery, the operating system and the screen. It is difficult to say how much the screen cost will go down. We continue to reduce cost but i don’t think we are in the line of sight for a $100 PC,” Intel’s general manager of Mobile Platforms Group Shmuel Eden said.
Currently, netbooks, which are designed for basic PC functions and surfing of the Net, can be bought for $299. Prices for the end consumer can come down only if new business models emerge, Eden indicated. Telcos, for instance, can subsidise netbooks in exchange for guaranteed subscription for say, three years. Much like the iPhone is subsided by telecom service providers in the United States of America. However, price alone may not be a bottleneck as far as notebook penetration in India is concerned. The country is likely to see a “hockey stick” explosion in demand and sales once broadband becomes all pervasive, the executive said.
The small form factor netbooks mushroomed over the last one year after Intel’s Atom processor hit the market. The chipmaker is now readying a handheld platform, codenamed “Moorestown”. It is scheduled to launch by 2010 and will target the mobile Internet device segment. The generation next to Moorestown will target smartphones, Eden said.