The growth in the use of cheap portable processors in notebook
computershas contributed to a decline in revenue at
chip-makerIntel.
Intel reported a drop in its fourth quarter 2008 revenue of 20%
compared to Q3 2008, a sign that the company's cheap processors may
be detracting fromits high-end processor business.
Intel'shigh-end processor, the Penryn Core 2 processor is used
in notebooks, but the company has also been building a business
manufacturing its low-cost Atom processor to power cheap netbook
devices such as the Asus eeePC, Lenovo S10, Dell Mini Note and
Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini Note.
Robert Castellano, president of market research firm, The
Information Network, said, "High margin CPU's (Core 2 duo/Quad-core
etc) will take a beating if netbooks proliferate upwards through
the value chain. Intel achieves phenomenal yields on Atom, which
makes the Atom's cost basis very low. There are margins there -
which on an aggregate will be high due to the volume play. But Atom
will cannibalise sales in the volume and performance segment."
Some industry experts believe people will buy the lighter, lower
cost netbook devices over fully-fledged laptops and notebooks,
because they offer most of the benefits of laptops without the cost
and weight premium of a laptop device.
Netbooks will be among the hot gadgets on show at this year's
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Analyst firm ABI Research
expects consumers to but 140 million netbooks in 2013, a massive
increase compared to the 15 million sold in 2008.