The vendor is expected to spend about $300m backing the architecture, which it finally debuted yesterday. The company is also pouring money into wireless technology startups, and into ensuring there is a global wireless architecture which users can easily exploit.
At yesterday’s launch in New York City, Intel claimed that notebooks based on its Centrino package, which includes the Pentium M processor, Pro/Wireless 2100 chipset and 855 Chipset, will offer 41% better performance than a 1.2GHz Pentium III M and 15% better performance than a mobile 2.4GHz Pentium 4. Centrino-based machines will offer five hours of battery life, compared to four hours for a Pentium III M system and three for a mobile Pentium 4.
However, Intel will not be launching Centrino at a significant premium to its existing top end mobile processors, and price points for complete systems should be similar to existing models. The difference between the Pentium 4 top of the line and Pentium M top of the line will be extremely small, said Karen Regis, a manager in Intel’s mobile platforms marketing group. Apples to Apples, it should be comparable.
The top end Centrino package, with a 1.6GHz processor, will be priced at $720, Intel said. The processor will also be available at 1.5GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.3GHz, with whole package priced at $506, $377 and $292 respectively. The vendor has also launched low and ultra low voltage versions of the chip. Intel will also sell each component separately. Yesterday’s launch was accompanied by system launches by a range of OEMs. Intel said OEMs had unveiled systems priced as low as $1,399.
Regis said that Intel would continue to launch new versions of its Pentium 4 processor. The Pentium 4 M machines will tend to be full sized, full spec notebooks, while Centrino will dominate the thin and light sector, and take some of the full sized sector. OEMs building full sized machines may be able to shave their prices, as they will not be using thin and light components.
Source: Computerwire
