At this point Intel feels secure about its market position at least in the Core i3 segment. Back in the first days of September Intel finally introduced a few Ivy Bridge based Core i3 processors and among them Core i3 3240 at 3.4GHz as the fastest part.

It looks like this will remain the fastest Core i3 at least until Q1 2013 when Intel might adjust its plans and potentially release a somewhat faster Core i3, but there is a chance that Intel will let the Core i3 3240 dominate all the way until Q3 2013.

Intel feels so good about the Ivy Bridge Core i3 and Pentium G2120 that it plans to keep the Core i3 3220 and Core 3225 at current speeds and won’t adjust it for sure until Q1 2013. It not pushed, it won’t change it until end of Q3 2013 when it’s expected to see the Haswell based Core i3 on the market.

It will be quite a long time before we Haswell Core i3 parts, more than a year for now considering that the current schedule is to have them on market in Q4 2013.

A lot can change until then.