14 DAY TRIAL // After Asus, Taiwanese notebook maker Acer is the second manufacturer to announce that it won't be able to meet Intel's projected sub $1000 price point for Ultrabooks, since the components used for such systems are too expensive.
Acer plans to unveil an Ultrabook in the fourth quarter of this year as part of its plans to get out of the difficult financial situation the company is facing at this time.
This new laptop will be built around Intel ultra-low voltage Sandy Bridge processors and, according to Acer, should have a boot time of just 6 seconds, while an Internet connection would be established in 2.5 seconds.
Initially, the Ultrabook was expected to follow Intel's guidelines and sell for under $1000, but Notebook Italia has now found out that Acer won't be able to reach this target due to the increased production costs.
In order to fit all the required hardware inside the confined space available in an Ultrabook, notebook makers will have to go with specialized components, such as ultrathin display panels, solid state drives and high-density Li-polymer batteries.
All these will add up to the production costs of the units, which makes hitting the $1000 price target difficult, if not impossible.
Intel has tried to overcome these obstacles by offering incentives and subsidies, and recently even increased its capital expenditures with $500 million US, partially because of the high costs associated with promoting the Ultrabook platform.
Just two days ago, we reported that Asus has also decided to raise the price of its UX Ultrabook series above the recommended $1000 US.
The Taiwanese hardware maker also blames the high component prices for this price hike, as it mentioned that only the Core i5 and i7 chips plus the operating system and SSD account for 50% of the desired platform costs. (via Fudzilla)