Posted on Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 20:31 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Verge
reports it doesn't look too good for Acer's goal to deliver a $499 ultrabook in 2013, as even at $799 they're unable to make a profit. Acer's Christoph Pohlmann said at CeBIT that currently a price point of even 499EUR is unreachable, never mind $499.
Speaking with Christoph Pohlmann of Acer's laptop team, we learned that the current $799 / €699 price for the Aspire S3 is too low for Acer to actually generate any profit from it. The company is merely breaking even when selling its entry-level ultrabook model and the venture is only made worthwhile by the higher-specced SKUs pulling in a surplus. Christoph told us that the S3 is at present priced on what is essentially a promotional basis — aiming to attract more converts to the hardware platform and the idea of truly ultraportable computing — which is unlikely to last over the long term.
The current costs of sourcing the necessary components and then manufacturing ultrabooks, said Cristoph, are prohibitive for any price point approaching €499, never mind $499. He does leave open the possibility that efficiencies in production and cheaper components could drag the price down, but he was generally dubious on the idea of a sub-$500 ultrabook.
