Intel's Confusion: Arrow Lake Processors Remain Slow Sellers in Germany

Almost a week after the release of Intel's Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) desktop processors on October 24th, a clear picture is emerging in the German market: Germany's largest online retailer for PC components, Mindfactory, has not sold a single one of these processors. While some Arrow Lake models are sold out in the USA at retailers like Newegg and Amazon, Intel CPU sales at Mindfactory make up only 5%, whereas AMD dominates the CPU market there with a whopping 95%. Mindfactory's weekly sales figures show that none of the five Arrow Lake desktop SKUs, including the Core Ultra 9 285K and the Core Ultra 7 265K/KF, appear on the sales list. Intel's most powerful chip, the Core i5-13400, ranks only 21st, behind a wall of Ryzen processors. A few 14th Gen Core i7s and Core i9s are also in the lower ranks, each selling only about ten units. Overall, around 40 sales, at an average selling price of 388 euros, stand against AMD's impressive performance. Just the two top AMD models, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, were sold 190 and 80 times respectively. AMD was able to increase its motherboard market share from 88.65% to 93.75%, further pushing Intel aside. Despite local production, the Core Ultra 9 285K is not among the buyers' favorites, as reflected in Mindfactory's figures. In the USA, the 285K is sold out in most stores, yet its mediocre reviews suggest mixed sales results. The tepid market introduction of the new processors exacerbates Intel's existing economic concerns, including a quarterly loss of $1.6 billion and cost-cutting measures like staff reductions and scaling back construction projects. Some analysts even report a halt in construction at the unfinished Intel plant in Magdeburg. These speculations could negatively affect the purchasing interest of German customers—a further piece in the puzzle of the weak sales performance of Arrow Lake processors in the country.