2 
Loss leaders—products sold without a profit to generate interest—sometimes work. Acer tried it with its recent S3 ultrabook, but it isn’t content with that; it has it sights set on cutting prices even further.
A report from The Verge explains that the S3 ultrabook is priced too low to make the company any money:
“The company is merely breaking even when selling its entry-level ultrabook model and the venture is only made worthwhile by the higher-specced SKUs pulling in a surplus.”
While that doesn’t sound like a sustainable strategy, Acer is actually planning to slash its prices even further. Their president, Jianren Weng, has been quoted as saying that Acer will push out ultrabooks as prices as low as $499 (converts to £350, but we’d likely see it at around £500 here in the UK) in 2013 to compete directly against Apple’s iPad.
Not that we should complain: cost-price laptops aren’t to be sniffed at. [The Verge]
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FTFA:
“The current costs of sourcing the necessary components and then manufacturing ultrabooks, said Cristoph, are prohibitive for any price point approaching €499, never mind $499. He does leave open the possibility…but he was generally dubious on the idea of a sub-$500 ultrabook.”
So basically more hype and rumor wrapped with a misleading title. Poor show.
It’s because technology manufacturers are lazy. It’s easier for them to change the $ sign to a £ sign and leave the digits as is.