AMD has always been the cheaper alternative to Intel when it comes to processors and they are extending that to the Ultrabook market as well.
Intel already announced their new Ivy Bridge platform Ultrabooks at CES. They’re hoping that will bring the price down to a more affordable $799 to $999. AMD, always being one to rain on Intel’s parade, is set to launch their own line of Ultrabooks, creatively called Ultrathin.
Digitimes is reporting that the new Ultrathins are set to be 10 to 20 percent cheaper than their Intel counterparts. The reduced cost is supposedly already attracting HP, Acer and Asus.
AMD is launching their Deccan platform with Krishna and Wichita APUs in June 2012 to compete with Intel’s Ivy Bridge. They will upgrade to the Kerala platform in 2013 with a Kabini APU to compete against Intel’s Haswell.
AMD is pushing their new Trinity-based APU onto the Ultrabook market to increase their 10 percent share in the world CPU market.
There is expected to be 75 new Ultrabooks based on Intel’s Ivy Bridge architecture in 2012 while only about 20 for AMD’s new Trinity architecture. The AMD models don’t offer any significant advantage over Intel’s Ultrabooks except in cost, which has always been AMD’s greatest advantage.
Digitimes is reporting, however, that some vendors fear AMD’s entry into the Ultrabook market will in turn rapidly lower the price of Intel’s Ultrabook models.