Ultrabooks Could See Price Pressure Due to New Macbook Air
A series of requests for quotations (RFQ) issued by Apple to Taiwan-based supply chain makers is apparently raising some concern among Ultrabook makers and their opportunity to market thin notebooks.
According to Digitimes, the RFQs affect MacBook Pro and MacBook Air computers as well as the speculation that Apple could lower the prices of its current notebooks to clear out its stock. The MacBook Air sells from $999 and the MacBook Pro from $1,199 at this time.
While any update to its Macbook Air is significant for all vendors that offer Ultrabooks, it would be rather silly to assume that Apple will not be updating its Air and all other notebooks this years, especially when we know that Intel is preparing the introduction of a new processor architecture.
As long as Ultrabook vendors are still trailing the concept of the MacBook Air, there may indeed be reason for concern that Ultrabook sales could be negatively impacted. Of course, vendors could also choose a route to innovation to differentiate their Ultrabooks from Apple's Macbook Air other than in SSD/HDD space, processor speed and coloring.
Ultrabooks are pretty outrageously priced and I dare say apple has a better showing in this segment vs the market as a whole.
Cut the BS... how else do you want to "innovate"? Anything more complex than dumb simplicity of Apple's devices and sheeple cry that it's "too complex" and "nerdy". What do you want other vendors to do, stick an LCD on the ultrabook a-la Razer Blade? No, seriously, WHAT INNOVATION do you expect rather than better tech specs? Okay, I saw a Samsung ultrabook that managed to have an ODD and remain thin... I think that's all you can do. WHAT MORE?
Different OS, different software, steep learning curve. Who in his right mind would bother with it.
You end up saving a few bucks on hardware and spent a ton to replace your PC software.
Maybe I am missing something here but this argument about price pressure makes no sense to me.
Different OS, different software, steep learning curve. Who in his right mind would bother with it.
You end up saving a few bucks on hardware and spent a ton to replace your PC software.
Maybe I am missing something here but this argument about price pressure makes no sense to me.
But you have to consider all the iSheep --Ahem, stupid consumers who have no knowledge or care for this, only the fact that the product is shiny and pretty.
if intel really wants to sell ultrabooks, they should either lower cpu prices or stick ulv core i3 and pentium cpus with hd 2500/4000 igpus in them.
Ultrabooks are pretty outrageously priced and I dare say apple has a better showing in this segment vs the market as a whole.
Apple has been the only company smart enough to not use AMD CPUs.
You can find Ultrabooks down to about $700... but at that price, the feature set looks more like an overpriced supercharged nettop running Windows than something I would like to use as an alternative to a PC or want to buy over a $500 conventional laptop.
I agree, Ultras are currently much too expensive for what they are worth to most people.
Tech specs may be how companies have to innovate on devices like these. Make something that nobody else has made. Or take something they did and make it way better.
Screen resolution would be a good start. We have $400 10" Android tablets with 2560x1600 screens yet almost all of our 13" and 15" laptops have 1366x768 screens and only a handful of $1000+ models have 1920x1080.
OLED screens would vastly improve the vibrance and contrast ratio of laptop screens as well. They cost more than cheap LCDs with TN panels but when companies are cramming i7's into these things you can certainly drop to an i5 and put the budget toward better technology elsewhere.
Better battery life in Ultrabooks would be welcome as well. 5 hours is alright but when you consider that Ultrabooks were designed to be ultra portable you should be able to go a full 8-10 hours without being plugged in.
Windows 8 brings touch to the table and I'm still waiting for a company to make a true hybrid solution for both creation and consumption. Tablets with keyboard docks aren't the answer. A laptop with a touchscreen isn't the answer and companies know that. Lenovo has some amazing hybrid designs and I think they're on the right track. Surface Pro is another great idea with the kickstand and the keyboard integrated into the cover (though the battery life again becomes an issue here).
There are plenty of ways to innovate. Windows 8 has flipped the industry on its head and hardware manufacturers are quickly learning that traditional notebook-style laptops aren't what people are looking for in 2013. They want the sleekness of a tablet with the power of a notebook. We just need the hardware to make it possible. Intel's Haswell chips will hopefully be the launchpad for low-power, high-performance devices that don't break the bank.
they almost did. they went far talking about putting llano apus in their laptops. amd and glofo failed to deliver, apple went with intel.
MacBook Air... yeah right uh huh ok... well good for you... *SARCASM*
However this segment of product is about to get turned on its head with the likes of the Transformer Book. This product shows real innovation, not the "higher res display = innovation that you get with Apple. Add a Cache drive and call it something fancy, his is not product innovation but rather marketing innovation.
So the real question is can Asus and friends continue to innovate while Apple Markets their innovation. Without having Apple leave a rotten taste. -CB
I tried recommending a good Ultrabook to a client with an SSD but couldn't find one at a reasonable price. They all had a small amount of RAM and last generation CPU. While you could find plenty of good current gen units in the $700 to $800 range using a regular hard drive or hybrid drive. You have to spend $1200 for one with an SSD only. These makers need a 128GB SSD model for $25 more than the same 500GB HD model.
Since most people don't store many files. Computer companies need to start pushing SSD's in laptops and desktops. For the few that need tons of space they can purchase a large secondary drive in store or do build to order with a large hard drive. Either large primary replacing the SSD, secondary or get a hybrid drive BTO.
1. They use the same hardware so you could run Windows solely if you desired.
2. Windows 8 is a huge change. So it would require a steep learning curve. Heck Mac OS X is a lot closer to older versions of Windows than Metro.
3. Most people don't have a lot of purchased software. For the most part all people buy is MS Office and an anti-virus. Otherwise they just use the free software which came with the computer or download some other freeware. Since they'll likely buy a new version of Office with any computer it wouldn't matter if it was Windows or Mac. The other major free software is available for Windows and OS X.
I think the popularity of mac has been student discount driven.
When they had the PowerPC chips and some server market they did have fairly cool stuff.
I remember two fails though the NuBus and that license deal where Blue something, sold the same equipment for less and they were surprised that it cut into their mac sales - Doh
Always wanted to check out a Lisa I did get to touch one once, it was off, but that's it. At that time I was working with the new Small UNIX systems like Fortune, Zilog, Altos and ones I don't remember they were cool but expensive. It would have been nice to see how Apples Visual UNIX compared on that Lisa