Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC brand, yesterday said its upcoming UX series Ultrabook platform would fail to carry price tags of less than US$1,000, as claimed by Intel Corp.
“Unless we use Intel Core i3 chips [the Ultrabooks will not be less than US$1,000]. The price tags will have to go beyond US$1,000 if [more advanced] i5 and i7 chips go into the notebooks,” a person familiar with UX development said.
The UX series will mainly use i5 and i7 to boost performance, he said.
Photo Courtsey of ASUS
The i5 and i7 chips, which are more expensive, plus the operating system and solid-state hard drives would account for about 50 percent of the cost of the ultraslim notebooks, thus driving up the price of the UX series to between US$1,000 and US$2,000, he said.
The UX series, showcased by Asustek at the Computex tech trade fair in late May, aims to rival MacBook Air from Apple Inc.
The UX series has two models — one is 11.6 inches and weighs 1.1kg, while the other is 13.3 inches and weighs 1.3kg.
Intel touted the Ultrabook platform at Computex, saying it would make notebooks thinner, lighter and more affordable, with price tags of less than US$1,000, while adding that battery life would last longer than 10 hours.
Asustek is likely to be the first vendor to debut Ultrabooks. The person said it was on track for a debut in Taiwan in late September.
Other companies, such as Acer Inc (宏碁) and Hewlett-Packard Co, reportedly plan to roll out Ultrabooks by the end of the year.
The person’s comments echoed those of Asustek general sales manager Kevin Lin (林福能), who said earlier this month that the price tags for the UX series would go above US$1,000 based on various specs.
Daiwa Capital Market’s analyst Calvin Huang (黃文堯) said on July 13 that Intel was merely cutting prices for its low-voltage processors to help thin and light notebooks make a comeback.
However, in Huang’s view, Intel’s help might not be enough because to make an Ultrabook, other more advanced and expensive components — such as ultrathin panels, solid-state hard drives, metal casings, high-density interconnect and polymer batteries — are required to make it comparable to the MacBook Air.
Separately, Fitch Ratings yesterday upgraded Asustek’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to “BBB” from “BB+” and its national long-term rating to “A+(twn)” from “A-(twn),” with a stable outlook.
“The upgrade reflects Asustek’s increase in market share and significant improvements to its -financial profile. The company’s focus on quality and innovation is gradually translating into market share gains and growing customer loyalty,” Fitch analyst Kevin Chang (張崇人) said in an e-mailed statement.
Asustek, which pioneered the mini-size notebook PC — also known as a netbook — market in 2009, is also the world’s largest provider of PC motherboards and graphic cards.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS