Ultrabook Sales Not Taking Off

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It seems ultrabook sales aren’t eating into the market share of notebooks as much as Intel had hoped. Taiwanese suppliers are pointing to Europe’s lukewarm reception of The ultrabook format as one reason. Intel had predicted ultrabooks would take 40% of notebook market share in 2012, but have now halved that to a forecast of just 20%.

Digitimes’s Taiwanese industry insider claims Europeans much prefer 15-inch laptops, but the first 15-inch ultrabook has only just launched – Intel hopes The Acer Timeline Ultra might be just the ticket – if it’s the display size holding ultrabooks back. Others suggest the prices of ultrabooks is not helping – most i5 versions cost upwards of $1000, closer to $1200 in Europe, and for that price want all their boxes ticked.

In my humble opinion the ultrabook has come at an awkward time – for the average consumer it’s little more than a super slim notebook with a small display – most notebooks at half the price can just as easily handle the workload the average consumer puts on it. Touch functionality, on the other hand, is a real paradigm shift – no fiddly buttons, decent display size, light, and secure. Ultrabooks are all and well, but the price needs to come down to more reasonable $700 mark.

Via Digitimes

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