Published in AI

Intel shows off Skylake Core M compute stick

by on15 April 2016


The mystery of the strange pricing

Intel has been seen pushing a new prototype TV stick with Core M (Skylake) and Intel Realsense F200 camera.

According to Notebook Italia it is not clear what the amount of memory and storage support the new Compute Stick will have. It has a fan for the dissipation of internal heat produced by the components with the objective of optimal operation of the device even "under load.”

There are two USB ports (one of which is USB 3.0), a mini HDMI, microUSB for the power supply and a power button. On one side, leaning, we find the bedroom Intel Realsense F200, which will be useful primarily for Windows Hello, and for the recognition of gestures, but whose integration has increased the dimensions of the stick.

But there is some strangeness about Intel’s approach to its Compute Stick product. Intel has stuck its latest Core M based Compute Stick on pre-order and it just strikes us that it is a bit pricy for what you get.

Its price is $300 for the FreeDOS version and about $400 for the one with Windows 10 and both are based on an Intel Core M3-6Y30, with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM. Intel is offering a more powerful one based on a Core M5-6Y57 but that will cost you $500.

The latest Core M chip based is a good low powered chip but it does not cost Intel that much to make, so why is Chipzilla releasing gear which is so over-priced?

We expect to see Chinese manufacturers buying up a job lot of these and creating their own Compute Sticks for a lot cheaper than Intel’s version. It is unlikely that Intel will lose any sleep if they do this, after all they seem to be going out of their way to encourage OEM’s to come up with their own designs, but why create a product and then price yourself out of the market?

Last modified on 16 April 2016
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