What is an Ultrabook? Discussion

What is an Ultrabook? It's a rather simple question, yet it is one that consumers often ask to little avail. Despite Ultrabooks being introduced into the market over a year ago, very few consumers have a grasp on what this sub-genre truly is. There are a number of reasons as to why consumers remain confused. Part of the issue is that the standards for Ultrabooks continue to shift and develop along with Intel's technology. However, a much larger portion of the problem stems from the discrepancy that lies between what the public perception of an Ultrabook is and what it is in reality.

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Ultrabooks are not selling near as well as Intel thought because they are not cheap compared to a MacBook Air, and let's face it 4/5 consumers would buy an Air over an exact spec-for-spec Ultrabook at the same exact price, the cheaper ones have god awful build quality, and a lot of Ultrabooks should not even be called Ultrabooks. Intel has too lenient of a definition.

Ultrabooks are a failed market plan for now, eventually they will take over the notebook industry like they have been slowly, but I don't think Intel has expected this much struggle. I think ultraportable notebook-tablet hybrids will dominate for maximum portability needs, but there's no doubt in 4-5 years optical drives are going to be all but gone out of 90% of notebooks.

 

The reason the ultranotebooks are failing is the price. like TSE said, 4 out of 5 people will prefer a macbook air over a similar priced ultra notebook of similar specs. For now the macbook air is dominating the market for ultra notebooks.

 

Numerous surveys have consistently shown that the majority of US consumers are looking for laptops priced between $399 and $799 whenever they are in the market to buy a new laptop. Now, the exact percentage that makes up "the majority" might vary from survey to survey, but the bottom line is that "most" US consumers want value ... not premium specs at a premium price tag.

That's not to say that Ultrabooks are a bad idea. I'm just saying you can't expect a massive shift in consumer buying behavior. Those people who are waiting to get a $599 laptop on sale for $299 during a Black Friday door buster deal aren't going to suddenly rush out and buy a $999 Ultrabook instead.

Still, major advances in PC technology usually happen when manufacturers put money behind premium products. A few years ago it would have been next to impossible to find consumer laptops priced less than $1000 with SSDs inside. I'm not saying Ultrabooks are responsible for the increased presence of SSDs in consumer laptops, but I am saying consumers can thank "premium-priced" products for helping to make SSDs more common in the consumer space.

 

To editor: For storage, you SPECIFICALLY need a Hybrid/Cached HDD MINIMUM to qualify as one. That's why there are few models where the only difference being a Notebook and a Ultrabook is that the latter features a 24/32GB NAND storage.

 

Sure thing. In fact that ultabooks are undeniably more expensive, it does not offer a better performance compared to regular notebook in the same price range (even most ultrabooks do not come with discrete graphics). This fact simply won't attract consumers at least they are after a windows version of MacBook Air.

 

Not everyone needs the 3D power of discrete graphics but do put a lot of value on portability, in which case ultrabooks tick the right boxes.

John

 

Back when Apple has not yet released the MacBook Air, no one seems to have a problem with portability, as far as it goes the regular notebook itself is already a portable computer.

 

Not so. Here and here are a couple of of ultraportables that I have bought in the past few years in the quest for adequate computing power with least weight. And this was an earlier attempt at portability, but the small pixels made my eyes complain (it's not quite as old as the date on the review). My current Samsung NP900X4C packs a 15" screen into similar weight.

John

 

Even then, there are usually better values than ultrabooks to be had.
-Netbooks
-AMD E series super netbooks
-Real ultraportables

The first two offer the same portability at lower prices, and the last offers the same portability, but more power at the same prices.

 

Ultrabooks are good for 90% of the consumers out there. They are generally cheaper than macs, and have the right amount of power and portability that people need. Not that many people need dedicated GPU's. The reason ultra books are failing is because consumers are not educated, they are ignorant as far as computers are concerned and just want Apple because it is in, and has an easy to use interface. Alot of people over look that Mac has "the best" trackpad. I don't like the trackpads on macs much, but all the college students talk about is how great macs work and how easy they are to use. PC fails because they are so customizable, it gives the consumer too many options and that scares people. If intel had better commercials that really educated customers on why ultrabooks will do everything they want them to do, they would sell more. All the commercials they are running right now talk about battery life. Average consumers want to get a good value and know that the laptop is easy to use.