Intel whacks mobile prices; Ziggurat unfazed

Intel cut prices on Pentium M chips, Centrino bundles and Celeron M chips for notebooks on August 1st. The price cuts ranged from 33 percent to just over ten percent.

The cuts followed the ziggurat pattern, the step pyramid of the ancient Sumerians, of the vast majority of Intel price cuts. That is, the new, fastest chip came to the market at the price of the fastest chip of yesterday, and that chip took the price of the second fastest chip.

The Pentium M, for instance, which came out a few days ago, costs $637, while the Pentium M 770 dropped from $637 to $423, a cut that moved the Pentium M 765 down a step from $423 to $294. And so on and so on. Although the 780 came out earlier, the price cuts occured today.

The fact that the new chip came out at the same price as the old one, and that the steps in the pricing pyramid didn't change is a sign that it's business as usual in Santa Clara. The company usually only alters the pattern when it seeks to take, or regain, market share.