It's no secret that Windows 8 tablets and touch-enabled notebooks haven't taken off the way Microsoft had hoped. One of the major reasons is that when Windows 8 tablets and notebooks came to market, they were priced much higher than competing devices. Intel claims those days are numbered and we'll see Windows 8 tablets and touch-enabled notebooks priced at the $200 price point in time for the holiday season.
The next group of Windows 8 tablets and touch-enabled notebooks running Intel's upcoming quad-core "Bay Trail" Atom processors will reportedly be priced at lower price points, to more aggressively compete with Apple's iPad and Google's Android tablets. During Intel's first quarter earnings call, Intel's CEO Paul Otellini said that upcoming devices using the "Bay Trail" Atom processor would not only be powerful and have long battery life, they would significantly drop in price, compared to the current Windows 8 touch enabled devices on the market.
"If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin using [Bay Trail] processors. Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200," Otellini said.
Intel's "Bay Trail" Atom processors have been completely redesigned from the ground up and will be closer in performance to Intel's higher-end chipsets. The chips are expected to double the performance of current Atom chips while providing longer battery life. The "Bay Trail" chip will reportedly provide users with a full day of use and up to a couple of weeks of standby time. The new chip will also allow manufacturers to build devices as thin as eight millimeters. Unlike the ARM chips that power Windows RT devices like Microsoft's Surface, the "Bay Trail" chip will run Microsoft's upcoming successor to Windows 8, Windows 8.1 "Blue." Consumers will get a full Windows desktop experience and also be able to run all Windows desktop apps on the devices, unlike Windows RT.
The new Intel Atom "Bay Trail" chips, Windows 8.1 "Blue" tablets and touch-enabled notebooks are expected to be ready in time for the holidays. If the devices actually ship with a price tag close to $200, Microsoft might have a hit on its hands. Do you think price is the reason Windows 8 tablets and touch-enabled notebooks haven’t flown off the shelves? Let us know in the comments.
