Dell set to release sub 500 dollar notebooks

Several motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan have claimed that Dell is set to release its first notebooks based on AMD processors in the last week of October. The first 500.000 AMD notebooks should be available in the first week of November.

Dell will be targeting the entry-level segment of the market with its new line-up consisting of a 15,4 inch notebook, which will be expected to go on sale for a retail price between 449 and 499 dollars, followed by a 17-inch model which will be released in the first quarter of 2007. According to various sources the 15,4 inch model will be manufactured by Quanta computers in Taiwan and the 17 inch model by Compal Electronics.

Currently AMD holds a 15% share of all notebooks sold world wide, but hopes to increase this share by working together with Dell. Those same sources claimed that Dell will be using 20 million AMD processors in their first year of working together, 20% of which would be used for notebooks.

Though industry insiders claim that AMD is facing a CPU shortage, AMD is prepared to ship 500.000 processors for the first series of AMD powered Dell notebooks. If sales are satisfactory then AMD will ship comparable amounts of CPU's for the next batches. AMD Taiwan has not released any official statements regarding this news.