Notebook manufacturers in Taiwan are now estimating that they can deliver a notebook priced at just US$299 (AUD$411).

This is not in some far distant future either. According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times the makers believe that they may be able to deliver such pricing in the second half of this year.

Now let’s see, five per cent margin on $411 discounted to an even $400 is, hum, ah, not worth opening the doors for. Who do we have to thank? The report references “leading CPU suppliers” as those assessing the idea.

It all makes Nicolas Negroponte’s One Laptop For Every Child foundation look like rip off artists charging developing countries a whole US$100 for a crank driven laptop.

In other, possibly related, notebook news, DigiTimes reports that leading notebook players in Taiwan have slashed their processor orders in the face of weakening demand.

Companies such as Dell, HP, Acer and Asustek have cut their Intel orders by as much as 30-50 per cent due to an unexpected rise in notebook inventory in the first quarter.

The strong desktop replacement sales they expected to start off the beginning of this year failed to materialise killing off single-core Sonoma sales. This is probably because buyers are holding off for the dual-core Napa-based notebooks just now hitting the streets.

However, DigiTimes’ sources indicate that consumers are not that keen on the new pricing of the Napa notebooks and won’t buy them either.

Add this to the end-of-year plans from Microsoft which will release a new operating system and Office 97 in the November timeframe and you have even more trepidation from potential customers concerned that their new notebook won’t be able to run the 64-bit enabled Vista.

The report says inventories should be under control through March, but Taiwan makers are urging Intel to bring forward a Yonah CPU price reduction currently scheduled for May 28.

Additional Reporting David Tzeng, Taipei; Steve Shen, DigiTimes.com