Posted on Thursday, October 20 2011 @ 22:22 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
DigiTimes
reports Intel's Atom platforms are on the way back as sales fell 32 percent year-over-year to only $269 million in Q3 2011. Netbooks will stay around and prices will likely drop from $300 to around $200-250, but they're no longer the rising star they're used to be.
In the past, Intel's Atom N series processors were able to account for close to 95% of the netbook CPU market, but as demand for netbooks continues to drop, several notebook vendors have already turned to purchasing AMD's APUs as they are cheaper, and feature better performance. Some players have brought panel sizes up from 10-inch to 12-inch, while maintaining price at US$399 to attract consumers.
Facing downstream partners reducing the number of netbook projects, while turning to AMD's APUs, Intel's revenues from Atom business are likely to continue dropping each quarter.
