In a Fox News TV segment (embedded below) the Ultrabook gets a very important airing with Intel CEO Paul Otellini along with commentary that made me sit up and listen. In–line with an interview we did early in September [5 more Ultrabooks coming], Paul says that there will be 11 companies offering Ultrabooks this Christmas, including Sony.
OK, Let’s count them. We’ve got Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba on board already. We believe that HP will have an offering in 2011 too. Add the revelation that Sony will offer a solution and you’re left with 4 missing from the list. Let’s assume Intel are pushing the boundaries out to include the Samsung Series 9 and the LG Xnote. Where are the other two coming from? Choose from MSI, Gigabyte (we believe that’s a 2012 product) , Fujitsu, Dell (also believed to be a 2012 product), Packard Bell and possibly some re-brands.
Paul went on to say that there were 60 designs in the pipeline that will launch with Ivy Bridge. That’s something to look forward to in Q2/Q3 2012 but surely he means SKUs. I can’t see 60 different designs being launched. If they are we’re going to nee help with the Ultrabook database!
Via Barrons
Awesome, great news thanks for the post and information… again!
I still have my heart set on the Clementine Orange U300s, but it’s looking more and more like that one will only be the higher spec $1600… a little pricey. If I could get the Orange in 128 core i5 for $1100, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
I’ve started thinking about skipping this round, waiting for round #2 with touchscreens and 3rd generation Core i. …Windows 8 anyone?
Consumers are not stupid. In today’s world, where you can get a good and light notebook for half the price or a dual core netbook for about $250, Ultrabooks are doomed for failure. They are not like thre MacBook Air. Apple has a cult following, so, whatever they come up with, people just buy.
Intel fails to realise, especially in times of economic slowdown, people are conscious about money and aesthetics alone won’t sell. “Ultrabooks” were there 7 years ago from Sony and Fujitsu. They were sold for $5000 and above. Nobody really bought them except for a few business travellers despite not having competition
Now the situation is difference. There is a lot of competition from super light (599grams) tablets which last twice as long on a single charge. There is also competition from netbooks which are faily fast having dual core cpus. What Intel fail to realise is that 90% of all portable buyers just want to surf the net with their units and do a bit of Word and Excel. All these buyers have their primary machine at home to do all those CPU intensive tasks like video editting and CAD. I reiterate, 90% of all portable buyers merely want to surf the internet ONLY and have long battery life. Nobody wants a i7 and i5 which gives them a crappy 4 to 5 hours of battery life.
Can’t believe Ultrabooks are relying on their main selling point which is aesthetics.