Intel-powered Android notebooks coming soon, will cost $200

If this piece of news is to be believed, then very soon we will see Intel-powered Android notebooks for as low as $200 (Rs 10,880 approx). Dadi Perlmutter, Intel’s executive vice president and chief product officer, told Cnet that notebooks carrying a price tag around $200 will predominantly be Android devices equipped with Intel’s Atom mobile processors.

However, there is no further information about these Android notebooks. It is unclear how they’d look like. Seemingly, they are expected to be convertible type devices, the hybrid trend that we saw at the popular tech shows earlier this year. Perlmutter expects the PC market to pick pace during the second half of the year as it heads into the year 2014.

Last week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini had disclosed that touchscreen PCs could make a debut at prices as low as $200. And this is expected to happen in the coming months. However, he hadn’t specified which operating system these devices would carry, so one could have easily assumed Windows 8. Whether Windows 8 PCs will carry such a low price largely depends on Microsoft, disclosed Perlmutter. He further added, "We have a good technology that enables a very cost-effective price point. The price of Windows 8 laptops depends on how Microsoft prices Windows 8. It may be a slightly higher price point."

The cheaper laptops are expected to run on Intel's Atom chips, and the ones which will run on Intel’s Core line will supposedly sell as low as $399 to $499. One can expect the higher-end laptops to be priced more. Reportedly, Intel will ship data-only multimode LTE processors by the mid of 2013 and multimode voice over LTE and data processors later during the year. Presently, the company offers only single-mode LTE chip. On the other hand, its rival Qualcomm dominates the mobile market and offers multimode LTE chips.

Intel has been a late entrant in the mobile segment. It will be introducing a mobile chip that integrates LTE on the same piece of silicon as the application processor in 2014. It has gained some traction in smartphones, but the figures are still low. Intel dominates the PC market by making chips that power computers/laptops and servers. However, the PC market has been witnessing a slow down due to the overwhelming response for mobile devices.