The $3,000 Laptop No One Needs

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 14, 9:55AM EDT · Published Apr 14, 5:19AM EDT

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Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new Macbook Pro can cost as much as $2,299 with a 17 inch monitor. That is not with additions that can push the price to more than $3,000. The computer uses Intel Corporation’s (NASDAQ: INTC) new quad core i5 chip. The chip allows users to have a super fast machine that can do many tasks simultaneously.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) also market new PCs for as much as $3,500 with the i5.

The new superfast laptops may be well beyond what even the most demanding consumer needs unless it is being used for high-end gaming or CAD-CAM applications. Both of those user populations are small.

The laptop may simply be becoming too powerful at the high-end of the product spectrum, just as it did with desktops. And, the new machines may sell very poorly, ironically, because less expensive machine with new dual core processors are faster and more powerful than they were even six months ago. The price of these dual core laptops can be under $1,000.

Intel has begun to work itself out of the computer space since consumers already have PCs and laptops which perform a wide range of functions quickly. That may be why a growing part of Intel sales are in the mobile market, according to the company’s quarterly earnings. The chips on smartphones are underpowered compared to laptops and even netbooks. Intel has to find a large new market to maintain its sales growth. But, it is entering an already-crowded area with several established companies, a market it does not dominate like it does the PC sector. Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN), QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Broadcom Corp (NASDAQ:BRCM) are waiting for Intel, but it is not with open arms.

Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.