Jul 4, 2011 09:02 GMT  ·  By

Some time ago, Intel came up with a sort of notebook-tablet hybrid concept that it promoted under the name of Ultrabook, but it looks like many vendors aren't that eager to jump on the bandwagon.

Intel's efforts, so far, to gain a strong footing in the tablet market have met little success, even after the coming of the Oak Trail Atom Z670 CPU.

Of course, the company is not about to lose hope, but it did start other projects as well, one of which is that of the Ultrabook.

Essentially, Ultrabooks are supposed to be notebooks with the added benefits of thin and light design, high responsiveness and other slate-like advantages.

The initiative was revealed back in June, but even with the likes of ASUS backing the project, vendors are still not very eager to do so as well.

One reason is the way Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) ultrathin notebook project failed, back in 2009.

Downstream vendors have, granted, started testing the ultrabook, but production projects are still something they are wary of.

Seeking to make up for this, Intel is investing quite a bit into supporting willing partners, hoping that it will manage to get 40% of the global consumer notebooks to be based on the concept by the end of 2012.

Unfortunately, the fact that the CPUs meant for Ultrabooks are rather expensive is not helping the situation, even despite Intel's claims that a complete laptop can sell for as low as $1,000.

At present, the Santa Clara, California-based CPU maker is doing its best to reel in first-tier notebook suppliers, or so reports state.

Just what comes of the whole project is something that will become clear once more time has passed. It will all depend on the marketing performance of the quad-core CPU-based models already out there, as well as those set to debut over the next few months.