That ultrabooks will push back the tablet onslaught is the main hope of PC players, but there wasn't much assurance that this will happen, and there still isn't, though hopes seem to be on the verge of fulfillment.
The reason for the appearance of ultrabooks is, quite simply, the media tablet segment.
Despite what people expected early last year, tablets proved formidable sellers, visibly impacting the netbooks market and the laptop segment overall.
In an effort to stave off the effects, Intel and its partners came up with the idea of ultrabooks, one of which has
already been launched.
Basically, Ultrabooks are notebooks that, even with a physical keyboard, are about as thin as a media slate.
There were several reports about what individual companies and analysts expect form the nascent segment, but no one was really certain what would happen.
Now, a new report from
Digitimes says that there are real hopes that Ultrabooks will impact tablets in the near-to-mid term.
Most brand vendors will launch their items in the fourth quarter of the ongoing year (October-December, 2011).
This means that true mass availability will ramp up only in 2012, meaning that next year will act as the battleground.
Acer Vice President Scott Lin is said to have pointed out that the notebooks have better longevity than tablets and an overall higher ability to meet entertainment and work demand.
The reason slates managed to gain such reputation is because of the focus on light and thin design features, an advantage that ultrabooks will practically eliminate.
With that drawback behind them, notebooks should have no trouble reversing consumer spending behavior, until the focus is again on notebooks.
30% of the global consumer notebooks should be accounted for by ultrabooks in 2012. By that year's end, the consumer focus should have shifted to notebooks once more, provided slates don't become even more absurdly thin and light in the meantime, what with new ARM platforms approaching as well.
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