Intel's consumer P4 push kicks off

TV ads, PC World blitz, sub-£999 machines

By Robert Blincoe • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 13th February 2001 11:29 GMT

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Intel is starting its big P4 consumer push this week. PC World's got some co-op marketing money and is advertising the 'UK's lowest price Intel Pentium 4, available to take home today.'

The price is £1,199 (£1,020.43 ex VAT) which amazingly enough is the cheapest P4 machine available off the high street/out of town shopping complex. But you can do better online and Dell, just for example, has a £1,114 (£899 ex VAT) system, including delivery.

Back to the P4 push, though. Later this week we should see the arrival of some sub £999 (ex VAT) boxes from other vendors, heavily promoted with Intel money, and the start of the Pentium 4 TV ad campaign. Well, if its doesn't start this week, it'll be on next week.

The UK Intel boys are returning from Santa Clara this week having been pumped up and made ready to sell - the message they're supposed to get out is that Intel make faster processors than AMD. Hence all the unsubtle talk about a 2GHz P4 by Q3.

PC World's £1,199 Advent brand machine, made by Centerprise, contains a 1.3GHz P4, 128Mb RDRAM, 20Gb hard drive, and 17inch monitor. The Dell model mentioned above has just a 10Gb hard drive.

Tiny is getting its first P4 machines in its shops next week, but its going for a higher spec and pricing starts at £1,299 ex VAT. ®