14 DAY TRIAL // The usual motive behind such a dramatic price drop is the company’s desire to clear inventory for a new generation of products. We don’t have any definitive information about Intel’s next-generation SSDs, but the prices for its current line have been dramatically cut down.
The news refers to a planned price reduction that will take place only next month. We would have liked to see it earlier, but a price drop is a price drop and we can’t argue with lower prices.
The current 320 series will receive the most tangible price reductions, as the 300 GB version will go down from $520 to about $465. That’s 10.5% price cut, and the August 2012 price will be about €380 for the European SSD enthusiasts.
The 600 GB version will lose about 17% of its current $1059 price and it will end up costing $879 (€720).
Getting to the Intel 520 performance SSD lineup, we see the products that will receive even greater price cuts.
The 60 GB Intel SSD 520 will likely end up selling at $89 (€73) instead of today’s $99.
The 120 GB member of the 520 Series will drop a massive 28%, from $179 to $129 (€106) and the 180 GB drive will lose 30% of its price getting down to “just” $189.
Intel’s SSD 520 240 GB will retail for $249 (€204) and that’s almost 1 dollar per gigabyte. The 480 GB model will nearly see its price halved from $799 to “just” $494 (€405) which is a considerable 39% price cut.
This may or may not represent the nearing autumn launch of a faster SSD line from Intel, but it is surely a natural move from the company in the face of fierce competition from OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, Plextor and others.