Intel has recently notified its partners of plans to reduce prices of the existing Sandy Bridge-based processors with some Core i3 and i5 series processors to see a drop of 10-15%, according to sources from notebook players.

Since Intel is set to announce its next-generation Ivy Bridge-based processor in April of 2012, the company is hoping the price reduction could stimulate the market demand with several notebook vendors such as Lenovo, Asustek Computer and Acer have already dropped their Core i5-2430 equipped notebook model to below NT$20,000 (US$659) and Core i3-equipped models to below NT$13,000.

The sources also expect the vendors to drop the prices of their first-generation Core i5-based ultrabooks to US$799-899 in January of 2012 to clear up inventory and to avoid these machines from biting off demand from their next-generation ultrabook models.

Next-generation 22nm Ivy Bridge-based processors including Core i5-3450, Core i7-3370, are expected to be priced between US$184-332, only US$10-15 more expensive than some of Intel's existing CPU models. If the company cannot quickly digest its remaining Sandy Bridge inventory, it could create issues during the transition to the newer platform.