End users to be burnt by drops in Pentium III pricing

End users contemplating buying Pentium III processors should watch out for relentless price drops over the next five months before they spend their hard earned cash. That became apparent when we exclusively published Intel's desktop roadmap last weekend. The Pentium III 450 and 500MHz, which dropped in price last April 11th, as predicted here, will be almost half the price in September 1999. And better technology is soon to arrive anyway. This is a slow buying season for PCs and Intel wants to brief dealers and distributors about price changes between now and September. Our roadmap shows that there will be steady price cuts throughout the Summer, with Pentium IIIs falling in price. Other considerations, such as how end users upgrade their machines, is likely to be an issue. Intel is committed to phasing out Slot One technology and is pushing PC manufacturers to introduce "fun PCs" as early as August, as also reported here. One games analyst said: "There's going to be a fast and integrated Celeron out next week and prices need to be watched, especially as Sony rolls out its future platforms. AMD is committed to supporting PC gamers. Intel is not particularly interested in games." ®