There are lots of reasons why sales of PCs are slowing: The economy isn’t strong in many industrialized countries, Windows 8 isn’t a compelling reason for organizations to upgrade from Win7 and people are putting their money into smart phones and tablets.
However few analysts thought that price has been an inhibitor. That’s because in the past year prices have been falling, particularly for laptops.
That’s why Samsung Electronics’ announcement of a new ATIV Book 9 Plus laptop with Intel’s latest fourth-generation CPUs is controversial: It’s priced at US$1,400.
According to analysts interviewed by Computerworld U.S., Samsung’s making a big mistake. In a slumping PC market, they argue, high-priced products won’t make it.
There’s no doubt it’s aimed at the upper end of the market: Slim and light — it weighs 1.38 kg — with a 13.3-in. 1920×1080 touch screen and 11 hours of battery life, the Book9Plus and a boot time of 5.9 seconds.
The long battery life alone distinguishes itself from competitors. A quick look online at Canadian Web sites and we discovered a Toshiba laptop with a 14.4-inch screen, a 3rd-gen i5 processor and 8 hours of battery life that’s marginally heavier than the Samsung for just over $1,000.
So the question with high performance laptops not that far off in performance but sometimes several hundred dollars less than the Book 9 Plus, will buyers shell out for it?