NEW YORK, Oct 17 — Intel’s CEO claims that this holiday season will be notable for all of the inexpensive tablets and computers that are poised to hit the shelves before the end of the year.

During his company’s third-quarter financial call, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said that thanks to Intel’s latest hardware, he expects to see more and more inexpensive gadgets lining the shelves in time for Christmas.

In fact the cost savings and performance that Intel’s Bay Trail, Haswell and Atom processors offer will, according to Krzanich, translate into US$99 (RM313) tablets, US$299 Haswell laptops, and US$349 2-in-1 hybrid tablets and laptops.

The first such devices, courtesy of a newly invigorated Dell, have already arrived. Its Venue 7 (so called because of its seven-inch display) tablet, which runs Android and uses an Intel Atom processor alongside 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, went on sale earlier this month for just US$149.

While its slightly bigger brother, the Venue 8 boasts a slightly more beefy 2GHz Intel Atom Z2580 Clover Trail+ dual-core processor plus the same amount of RAM and storage as the Venue 7 for just US$179.

Krzanich also said that touchscreen-optimized notebooks (made possible by Intel technology, of course) will be the standout items as consumers hit physical stores and online retailers looking for holiday gifts. — AFP