According to Digitimes that quotes market sources, the demand for the ATOM, the processor used in cheap NetBooks, has started to slow during the last few months ago. Even though this processor has made it possible for Intel to gain market share, it is now in competition with other solutions with low power consumption with a not so powerful cpu in a war that seems dictated only by the price.
It is possible that the customers prefer to await new more powerful versions of this CPU which should arrive soon. But one should not be deluded, Intel has no interest in releasing a too powerful ATOM. On the contrary, since it would overlap with the processors Core 2 Duo which offer to the foundry a much higher margin.
