The PC market has seen better days. With the rise of the mobile devices rapidly being taken into the field, sales of PCs in both desktop and laptop versions are starting to drop off accordingly. Some even believe that the PC may be at death's door; even Steve Jobs (News - Alert) was once famously heard to remark that we are currently living in a "post-PC era." But as some new reports suggest, it may be possible for the PC to not only recover, but even offer up a touchscreen model for just $200.

So what's standing between the buying public and a $200 touchscreen PC that has the ultra-thin form factor everyone loves these days? According to a report from HIS coined, “The PC Dynamics Market Brief” all that's holding the industry back is Intel (News - Alert). Should Intel decide to cut the prices on its semiconductor components, then the ability of the industry to produce a super-thin, low-cost touchscreen PC would come into play and create exactly that.

There are even some indications that suggest Intel may well do just that, at least to some degree. Intel's Vice President and General Manager, Zane Ball, recently took the stage at the IHS (News - Alert) / SID 2013 Business Conference to run down the company's plan to give the industry a better shot at producing the lower-cost hardware with touch technology. After getting an eyeful of the plan, IHS Senior Principal Analyst Craig Stice believes that the plan could be just the ticket.

Stice elaborated on his position, saying "A price point that low seems far-fetched considering the mobile PC prices of today, with Ultrabooks and other ultrathins going as high as $1,000 or more. However, the small laptops known as netbooks saw their prices reach down into the $200 range at the height of their popularity a few years ago, and a cost analysis of netbooks shows how such a low level of pricing can be used to support a no-frills type of ultrathin PC."

Indeed, IHS Compute Systems Cost Analyzer figures suggest that the cost of components on a netbook for the third quarter 2013 would run right around $207.82. So for the wider PC industry—already accustomed to slim margins—making such devices, and making them profitably, could be in the cards. Given that Intel is essentially responsible for as much as a third--33 percent--of the total bill-of-materials costs, a price drop on Intel's part would go a long way in bringing simple touchscreeen hardware into play.

Additionally, augmented processors from Intel—especially the new Atom processor known as "Bay Trail"—could offer some needed improvements in the smaller form factor designs, including offering better graphics with improved battery life. But PC makers would also have to find a way to get the prices down further in order to reach that $200 price point.

It's all possible at this stage, but it depends on a lot of concessions being made and some new approaches to the larger market being taken as well. If the prices on PCs drop and offer touchscreen capability to take advantage of the new features offered by Windows 8, it could well serve as a shot in the arm to the PC industry, which is looking badly in need of such intervention in order to save the once universal tool from becoming a niche tool for specialists only. Only time will tell just which route we go, but the future of the PC may depend on it.