14 DAY TRIAL // Ultrabooks are not a quest that all PC players are comfortable embarking on, with Gigabyte and Micro-Star International being, apparently, two of the companies with less enthusiasm than the rest.
In fact, both these companies are said to have held back from actually jumping in the fray. Neither actually has any ultrabook planned.
This is not so hard to understand, not after the product type failed to actually take off in terms of sales. Ultrabooks turned out to be just too expensive.
Intel does continue to promote them, and even intends to give them thunderbolt and wireless docks, but with those to drive price even higher, short-term sales prospects aren't getting any brighter.
It doesn't help that both MSI and Gigabyte have been suffering losses in their notebook businesses.
The latter doesn't want to give up on laptops, of course, but it is also cautious about lunging at new device types without clear assurance that it won't do more harm than good.
At present, the Booktop series of notebooks is its main weapon, along with some high-end and entry-level models, plus docking stations.
As for MSI, it has succeeded in keeping its finances steady through its success on the motherboard front.
Moving forward, it will put the most emphasis on gaming notebooks and not spend as much time and resources on low-end or mid-range models.
Ultrabooks were conceived as a sort of new incarnation of the PC, one that was going to make computers fun and convenient in the eyes of buyers and match the success of tablets.
Unfortunately, they ended up selling for a lot more than slates while not actually offering benefits to justify that, apart from the physical keyboard (which tablets can get via docks anyway, for a lower, total cost).
2012 is supposed to be the year of sharp price cuts for them, but that might be too far off.