 The industry average for the lowest pricing across the top online merchants, by volume, for the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor. (Source: Dynamite Data)
Inventory crunch erases the great savings of Intel's cheap quad-cores
The monstrous Intel price cuts yesterday were one of the worst kept secrets on the Internet. I realized this when my step-father, who's owned probably two computers in his life, mentioned to me that he was going to hold off getting a desktop until after today's price cuts.
I asked our guy Brandon Hill to put the better priced Intel CPUs in yesterday's Daily Hot Deals, only to find Mwave listed. This annoyed me until I found out why -- all the good Intel deals went out of stock in less than 24 hours.
Intel's suggested retail price for the quad-core Q6600 is $266 in quantities of 1,000. Using price monitoring software, I followed the status of this CPU over the weekend. Each of the following retailers had the Intel Q6600 priced over $500 before July 7, 2007.
- MWave: $279 at 00:01 on July 21, 2007, Out of Stock by 11:00 on July 23, 2007
- ClubIT: $279 at 15:35 on July 20, 2007, $305 at 13:30 on July 23, 2007
- ZipZoomFly: $330 at 00:01 on July 21, 2007; $295 at 00:01 on July 22, 2007
- NewEgg: $299.99 at 22:00 on July 20, 2007; Out of Stock by 17:30 on July 22, 2007
- E-Wiz: $330 at 16:00 on July 20, 2007
Vendors who restocked quantities (Newegg included) returned pricing to pre-cut levels almost immediately.
So what's going on here? One major U.S. vendor, who spoke on terms of anonymity, claims his company sold no less than "five figures" worth of units since the 21st. A major Canadian retailer, also speaking on terms of anonymity, claims the unit volume for the 48 hour period after the price cuts was in the "high four figures." Yes, that's just one SKU, the Intel Q6600.
"We had distributors lined up for months with regard to quantity ... when we knew the price cuts would hit," a sales manager for a brick-and-mortar outlet claimed. "Nobody really thought we'd be out of stock the next day."
"It seems as though my state-funded math degree has failed me. Let the lashings commence." -- DailyTech Editor-in-Chief Kristopher Kubicki
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