Tablet Vendors Rush to Catch Intel’s Bay Trail CPU Discount Before It’s Over

pcappdate. Apparently the current Intel discount for the previous-gen Atom “Bay Trail” CPUs has prompted vendors of low-end tablets to rush ordering as many SoC pieces from Intel before the discount is over. Intel’s discount comes as an effort from the American company to sell its stock of “Bay Trails” before starting to sell en mass its new “Cherry Trail” models.

Currently Intel sells both the old “Bay Trail” CPU modes and the newest “Cherry Trail” Atom chips, however, the old “Bay Trails” may be phased out soon, and in an effort to finish its stock Intel decided to impose heavy price cuts on its old chips, while also keeping the price on its new “Cherry Trails” slightly higher at around $15. Intel offered the “Bay Trail” models at $8 discount for Google Android tablets and $4 off for Microsoft Windows. According to Digi Times the current price of the “Cherry Trail” will be reduced by $2 or $3 probably as the “Bay Trail” price cuts will be over in October.

Last year Intel lost approximately $4.2 billion because of the heavy discounts for its “Bay Trail” SoCs, so it makes sense why the American company wants to put an end to the price cuts and push forward its “Cherry Trail” SoC.

Intel will shut the gates of low cost "Bay Trail" as it focuses again on PCs

The new Atom made by Intel is made using 14nm process technology and is based on the more advanced “Airmont” micro-archtecture and a much better graphics core. Intel hopes that even though it sells the new SoC at a naturally higher price, it will convince manufacturers to stay true to Intel’s processing solutions.

Unfortunately, this is not likely since they are currently planning to switch to Qualcomm  or MediaTek immediately after the discount drops. Even though Intel currently leads the tablet SoC industry, this dominance might not continue for long since higher prices will deter any partners to continue their collaboration with the company, while Intel itself declared that it wants to move back to the PC industry.