Tablets with Intel’s upcoming Bay Trail T processors will be available this year at prices below $200, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.
It’s probable that the under-$200 Bay Trail tablets will use Android, not Windows, because the Windows OS costs more than the ‘free’ Android OS and because Window requires much more memory than Android. It’s also probable that the sub-$200 tablets will be minis with smaller, lower resolution and less expensive displays. But, then again, maybe not!
If the Bay Trail processor can help get full-screen Windows tablets below $400, it will be a gigantic boost for Intel, Microsoft and their PC makers in their battle against Apple’s iPad.
Krzanich said, ‘We believe that [Bay Trail] really allows us to get into markets that we are not in today in a big way ‘ the sub-$400, sub-$300 in some cases, clamshells and touch-enabled convertibles and two-in-one devices. In tablets, $199 and below. Some you are going to see even lower, below $150 and much below that as we go through the holiday season.
‘So Bay Trail really first and foremost, we believe, gives solid performance, solid battery life relative to the competition in price points and markets that we’re simply not in today, in a big way.’
He also said Intel will put equal corporate emphasis on its processors for PCs and on the upcoming Bay Trail line of processors for tablets and smartphones. That’s a bold strategy for a company that currently has 60% of its profits coming as a result of its long-time dominance in processors for PCs. It also indicates that Intel is betting that its Bay Trail processors can gain a lot of market share against ARM-based processors that are made by companies such as Samsung, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments.
Unofficial benchmarks conducted with Android tablets show that Intel’s Bay Trail tablet processor handily out-performed a comparable ARM processor in a side-by-side comparison. We are also quite sure that a number of Bay Trail tablets will be in stores by mid-October, probably including a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet that runs the upcoming version of Windows 8 ‘ the one with the Start button added back. Price, footprint and usage between battery charges are as important as processing power, especially in tablets. Those we don’t yet know about but Intel and Microsoft’s tablet makers do, so that information will start leaking out very soon.
Krzanich was responding to a question during the company’s press and analyst call regarding the company’s second quarter performance. An analyst asked whether the less-expensive Bay Trail processors might ‘cannibalize’ sales of its pricier new Haswell multi-core processors for PCs. For example, PC makers might start using Bay Trail processors in portable PCs rather than Haswell processors because Bay Trail processors cost less, use less power and allow for longer use between battery charges. In effect the analyst was asking whether Intel is prepared to cannibalize sales of its PC processors or allow ARM-based processors to do it.
Krzanich answered, ‘Our view right now on Bay Trail is that we don’t believe it will be cannibalistic in that nature’ So we look at it mostly as expansive.
‘The other thing that I think is a point is Haswell [the PC processor that Intel launched in June], as we said, is the largest battery-life improvement in Intel’s history, along with great performance. And it’s providing products that have Core-level performance that will be fan-less for the first time. So we still believe that there is a strong drive for performance in segments of this market that look for high-def video performance, gaming, all of the things that if you actually look at a lot of the tablet usage, even, people are doing more and more and definitely in these two-in-one and convertible devices, people look for that kind of application. So we believe that Haswell allowing us to go down into those better price points and lower power usage, will give us the performance option to keep people up into those regions.’
Intel says its Haswell flagship PC processors will lead to new form factors for notebook computers and tablets that can quickly and easily switch from a laptop’s clamshell mode to tablet mode. Smith said more than 50 of such ‘two-in-one’ models are being developed by PC makers.
If devices with the ‘two-in-one’ design are successful, it’ll be interesting to see what Apple does. Apple has two operating systems ‘ iOS for its touchscreen tablets and smart phones and Mountain Lion for PCs that are operated with a mouse and keyboard. That gives Apple advantages in maximizing the software for each, but that could become a problem if Microsoft can make a ‘one-operating-system-fits-all’ successful, which is what it is trying to do with the so-far not so successful Windows 8.
Intel executives in a position to know, expect Windows tablets with its Bay Trail T processors to be on store shelves in mid-October, soon after Microsoft launches the next version of Windows 8 ‘ Windows 8.1 or whatever Microsoft calls it. That’s just in time for the holiday shopping season. They are very optimistic about the price performance of the newest Intel Atom processor that’s intended for tablets ‘ the Bay Trail T, which we reported on last week in ‘Bye-Bye Windows Surface RT!’
It’s not yet known what impact Bay Trail T tablets will have on sales of the RT version of the Surface tablet because we don’t yet know the following:
– Retail prices. Keep in mind there’s the corporate market where Windows compatibility and security are major attractions and separately the consumer market, which Apple seems to have a lock on function- and interface-wise, meaning that price is Microsoft’s best barrier batterer.
– Processing power compared to the ARM processor in the RT. Qualcomm said this week its ARM-based processors will stay ahead of anything Intel does.
– What, if any, further price reductions Microsoft makes in the RT, which it did this week.
– Footprint compared to a comparable ARM processor is important to tablet makers because they want to produce slim form factors that are very light.
– Battery usage between charges.
It is certain that if prices of RT and Pro tablets are close, all else being equal, the corporates will pick the Pro models over iPads because it can run existing Windows software ‘ especially the software the corporates have custom developed, is compatible with most existing Windows PC add-ons and operates within the same security systems as Windows PCs. Some consumers may also be tempted to pick the Pro because of its Windows compatibility and its user interface being familiar.
However, the larger market share battle being fought is the one to unseat Apple’s iPad from its perch at the top. We have seen what lower prices can do by looking at the sales of the iPad mini.