It’s official. The Intel Atom shortage is over. And that means netbook makers are pumping out low cost laptops like there’s no tomorrow. DigiTimes reports that in Taiwan, this means that competition is heating up between netbook makers. The result? Major price cuts.
According to DigiTimes, you can now pick up an Asus Eee PC 701 for NT$7,999 or about $250 US. Asus also reportedly plans to slash the price of the Eee PC 1000 from about $620 to $530. The Eee PC 901 will fall from about $530 to $470.
Acer, meanwhile is dropping the price of its Aspire One laptop with a 120GB hard drive and Winodws XP from $525 to $480, while HP has lowed the price of its cheapest Linux-based Mini-Note from $560 to $495. HP’s netbooks use the VIA C7-M CPU, not the Intel Atom chip, so it looks like the price cuts may not be tied solely to the end of the Intel Atom shortage.
Other companies, including MSI, are expected to follow suit soon.
Will these price drops eventually be reflected in the US, Europe, and other countries? I certainly hope so.
netbooks cost a lot more in Taiwan, this price cut might put them in par with the US, but lower price won’t hurt.