Another year another new product category, at Computex 2011 the Ultrabook category was announced by Intel, in case you missed its meant to sky rocket to 40% of the notebook market by the end of 2012 and they will be will be less than 0.8-inches thick and start at under $1,000. Sounds too good to be true? It seems the downstream manufacturers also have their suspicions.
According the the gossip and rumor heavy sources at Digitimes the Ultrabook concept is being heavily invested in by Intel with hopes that they will attract first-tier notebook vendors into launching this new category. Though this is a rumor, it does make sense that Intel would want to ensure the success of this category, with Netbook’s being heavily pushed onto emerging markets the Ultrabook would enter in at a time when Western markets are looking for more power and thinner mobile computers.
Like all product categories notebook sales have been impacted by the entry of tablets on to the market and Intel has finally thrown in the towel admitting failure of the Ultra Low Voltage-based (CULV-based) notebooks. With the failure of this low power low cost solution Intel is hoping they’ve found a solution that can grab consumers attention and compete with likes of the MacBook Air. Actually Intel could care less if the MacBook Air wins, however, the PC world needs to have a comparable device hitting the streets in order to compete with Apple.
Though it is necessary for PC vendors to address thin, light and powerful they are still tasting failure from the last time Intel pushed them into a new product category. Understandable most notebook vendors are taking a conservative attitude toward Intel’s Ultrabook concept and Intel is hoping its heavy investment will be able to attract these vendors to launch Ultrabook products. It appears that though many vendors have started testing no one is allowing themselves to be pushed into the Ultrabook race early.
The other concern is the high price of the CPUs are currently still affecting downstream vendors’ willingness to adopt as vendors are still concerned whether the Ultrabook product’s prices can reach as low as US$1,000 as claimed by Intel.
For the Ultrabook product line, Intel has recently launched four dual-core CPUs and is set to launch a single-core Celeron 787 CPU in September and Celeron 857 in the fourth quarter to replace Celeron 847.
One company who is constantly pushing the boundaries on design is ASUS, who is already set to launch its first Ultrabook concept-based notebook, UX21, in September. It appears that we’ve got test case to see how the market reacts to this new product category, and I have to admit, I tip my hat to ASUS & Intel for being ambitious enough to deliver a product only three months after launching a category. Let’s see if its success will inspire others to let themselves be persuaded by Intel to jump on the band wagon.
If you want to check out the ASUS UX21 Ultrabook we were able to get our hands on at Computex in the video below:
Via Digitimes
