Samsung has launched an ATIV Book 9 Plus laptop with Intel's latest Haswell chip that will be available for US$1,400, but analysts said such sustained high prices for laptops and ultrabooks could hinder the recovery of the PC market.
PC shipments are already in a steady decline with the growing adoption of tablets, and buyers are not yet willing to pay a premium for machines with Microsoft's Windows 8, analysts said. Most of the new laptops with Haswell chips, including Toshiba's latest Satellite laptops, are priced above $800, and buyers at this point are only willing to pay a premium for Apple products.
"The thought that you can sell a $1,400 notebook is ridiculous. The mess is partly credited to Windows 8," said Roger Kay, president and principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Most of the Haswell laptops are still priced at $800 or more, with a few exceptions, like Dell's Inspiron 15R, which is priced at $599 after a $300 discount. Intel has said it hopes to bring the ultrabook prices to under $600 by the end of this year, though the processor type in those laptops has not been specified. It is likely that sub-$600 ultrabooks will have the older Intel Core processors code-named Ivy Bridge, as has happened in the past when other older processors were used in less-expensive ultrabooks.
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