Reports from Asian news sources that Intel will continue to cut the price of their Pentium 4 processors over the coming month have been confirmed by local PC manufacturers.
The graduated price reduction scheme, which started with an 11-19% cut that came into effect on April 15th, will see the launch price of the Pentium 4 series of processors halved by the end of the month.
Stephanie Silvester, public relations manager for Intel Australia, said that the recent price reduction was a result of "natural price movements", and that the reports were probably based on speculation on the part of analysts. "The market knows were trying to ramp the processor's entry to into the mainstream market very quickly", she said.
Silvester was unable to provide details of the company's pricing policy for the processor in the near future but PC manufacturers say the company has already briefed them on the price reductions. Richard Yeadon, sales and marketing manager for Adelong Computers said "we were warned that the price [of the Pentium 4] would be dropping 50% over the coming month in two to three stages".
The success of the Pentium 4, which carries a high manufacturing cost into the market, has been eroded by low demand in the high-end market. According to US analysts the cuts are necessary for the Pentium 4 to break into the mainstream market and displace the Pentium III from the desktop by the end of the year.
The reports come as Intel announced yet another fall in its quarterly revenue earnings, which were down 16% from the first quarter of 2000 to US$6.7 billion, 23% lower than the previous quarter.
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