Acer and ASUS are reportedly freezing netbook releases until mid-August, according to DigiTimes‘, in order to clear their inventory before the Atom N550 processor is meant to be released in Q3. Although Intel plans to launch the dual-core Atom N550 processor in the third quarter to improve netbook’s performance, the CPU’s US$11-22 price gap with the existing Atom N455/N475 is currently halting netbook brands from developing the related products.
This is something that we have noticed when we look at the market an overlapping of power over various processor lines. The Atom N550 netbooks create conflict in terms of market position with Intel’s Celeron-based notebooks since both CPUs that share a similar price points.
Intel reportedly plans to phase out Celeron processors and let Atom CPUs taking over the entry-level notebook segment, since Intel still has not yet officially confirmed the rumor, most of the notebook brands are taking a wait-and-observe attitude.
Via Slash Gear Source Digitimes
