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Intel Bets 2012 on Ultrabooks

By - Source: Forbes | B 32 comments

The first ultrabooks are out of the gate and it appears that Intel can breathe a sigh of relief. However, Intel will be making sure that the market development will stay on track and will be funding the segment accordingly.

Senior vice president Tom Kilroy told Forbes that ultrabooks will be at the center of the company's biggest marketing campaign in 2012. After ultrabooks were somewhat slow to gain traction, Intel announced in August that it would support innovation with $300 million the company would provide through its Intel capital VC arm. Kilroy did not say how much marketing money Intel will sink into ultrabooks next year.

Intel is depending on ultrabooks to become successful and to help pick up chip sales that netbooks are losing. So far, Intel isn't selling many chips into the tablet segment. However, even with a PC market that has slowed down dramatically, Intel knows that the PC market remains by far the more attractive opportunity for processor sales over the next few years. The best argument for developing the PC market is that Intel does not have to make any bets and decide which market forecast for tablets they trust: the PC market already exists and no bets have to be made.

If the ultrabook market takes off, it may be far more lucrative for Intel than selling lower-margin processors into the tablet segment in the near future.

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  • -6 Hide
    yzfr1guy , October 13, 2011 3:14 PM
    Ultawhat? UltraFail? There's too many darn gadgets for crying out loud,I know we humans thrive on technology but come on, another market for devices that'll soon be forgotten all in the name to replace the personal computer? Pfff
  • 1 Hide
    mrpijey , October 13, 2011 3:19 PM
    Is this the same guy that predicted UMPCs would be a success?
  • -9 Hide
    vaughn2k , October 13, 2011 3:19 PM
    Ultra books with Atom... sheesH!
  • Display all 32 comments.
  • 5 Hide
    stryk55 , October 13, 2011 3:24 PM
    This seems like one of the riskier things Intel has done in the past few years, relatively speaking of course. Ultrabooks (like tablets and netbooks) seem to be a niche market that may or may not take off. Their Atom platform to use in netbooks was a little underwhelming and I've seen the number of netbooks at retail stores slowly begin to dwindle away.
  • -7 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 13, 2011 3:26 PM
    Oh yeah? Well, STFU, Intel! :D 
  • 2 Hide
    RipperjackAU , October 13, 2011 3:34 PM
    vaughn2kUltra books with Atom... sheesH!


    Unless the Ultra books come with THIS Atom:



    Then yea... Not interested!
  • 1 Hide
    drwho1 , October 13, 2011 3:39 PM
    I bet against Intel on this one.
  • 2 Hide
    house70 , October 13, 2011 3:42 PM
    I'm afraid it's just wishful thinking.
  • -4 Hide
    leandrodafontoura , October 13, 2011 3:55 PM
    What happens after everyone in the world already has a notebook/ultrabook...what intel is gonna do??
  • -4 Hide
    rottingsheep , October 13, 2011 4:29 PM
    overpriced.

    i'm still wishing for a day when laptops become as configurable as a desktop pc.
  • 3 Hide
    Device Unknown , October 13, 2011 4:35 PM
    I would rather have an Ultrabook than a damn tablet. I like the idea, light weight, small PC that I can tote everywhere and has capabilities that no tablet can offer. Then again I don't own either, I would need to try them out for a few days to decide.
    Hey Intel, can I borrow one for a week?
  • -4 Hide
    HansVonOhain , October 13, 2011 5:06 PM
    I bet for cookies.
  • 8 Hide
    Cazalan , October 13, 2011 5:08 PM
    UltraBooks are not Atom based. They use i3/i5/i7 CPUs.

    They're just thin and sleek laptops. It's not really a gamble for Intel. That's just the way the market is heading.

    Acer has a $899 UltraBook. iPad2 is $499. Add in accessories and you're getting close.
  • 4 Hide
    classzero , October 13, 2011 5:17 PM
    vaughn2kUltra books with Atom... sheesH!

    Atoms? sorry you are wrong.

    "The rest of the S3's specs are in line with the Toshiba Z830 and Lenovo U300s: It uses a low volt Intel Core i5-2467M processor, 4GB of memory, and 64GB SSD (with a 128GB option)."

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392350,00.asp#fbid=W1ybTXm843E
  • 2 Hide
    lp231 , October 13, 2011 5:21 PM
    rottingsheepoverpriced.i'm still wishing for a day when laptops become as configurable as a desktop pc.

    There were some models, it's called a whitebook
    Intel did something in the past call "Interchangeability Initiative"
    which means any notebook that joins it makes notebook parts that can be interchanged with one another
  • 3 Hide
    rohitbaran , October 13, 2011 5:24 PM
    Device UnknownI would rather have an Ultrabook than a damn tablet. I like the idea, light weight, small PC that I can tote everywhere and has capabilities that no tablet can offer. Then again I don't own either, I would need to try them out for a few days to decide. Hey Intel, can I borrow one for a week?

    Well, ultrabooks feature a strong CPU, but they sacrifice on a lot of things like a decent GPU, ports etc. It is more of a like it or not thing. I am in the not liking group, for I want a feature packed laptop even if it is 2 lbs more than an ultrabook.
  • 1 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 13, 2011 5:29 PM
    Quote:
    Well, ultrabooks feature a strong CPU, but they sacrifice on a lot of things like a decent GPU, ports etc. It is more of a like it or not thing. I am in the not liking group, for I want a feature packed laptop even if it is 2 lbs more than an ultrabook.


    Thank you. At least someone here understands...
  • 0 Hide
    jungleboogiemonster , October 13, 2011 5:42 PM
    I'd be all about an ultrabook if the prices were reasonable. I'd also like a 14" screen too, but the price is the big show stopper.
  • 0 Hide
    purveyor_of_truth , October 13, 2011 5:45 PM
    Ultrabooks are not netbook "toys" (priced under $500 using an Atom processor). There is one Ultrabook that has been on the market since July of this year...it's called an Apple MacBook Air. There's no question that MacBook Airs sell well...we'll have to wait and see if consumers can be convinced to purchase similar hardware from a non-Apple company.

    The 2 main shortcomings of Ultrabooks vs. a regular notebook (as I see it) are that there is no built-in optical drive (does anyone still use these? -- you could still hook up an external one for the rare times you need it) and you are limited to Intel's graphics. So clearly it's not targeted at power users or gamers, but then that's what...5% of the consumer market at most?

    Personally, I would go for a notebook (Nvidia/AMD graphics, high-res large display), but the rest of my extended family would go the Ultrabook route (possibly even netbooks, ick).


    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook

    First phase (Q4 2011)
    Thin – less than 20 mm (0.8 inch) thickness[6]
    Lightweight – less than 1.4 kg (3.1 pounds)[7]
    Long battery life – 5 to 8+ hours[8]
    Mainstream pricing – under $1,000 USD (for base model)[9]
    No optical drive
    Use flash-based SSDs[10]
    Use CULV (17 W TDP) Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors
    Core i5-2467M (1.6 GHz)
    Core i5-2557M (1.7 GHz)
    Core i7-2637M (1.7 GHz)
    Core i7-2677M (1.8 GHz)
    Use Intel's graphics sub-system HD 3000 (12 EUs)
  • 0 Hide
    warezme , October 13, 2011 7:12 PM
    I think these will succeed. They are truly powerful machines at good prices and from the ones I have seen look pretty nice for the price. I can see a lot of people buying these just on looks alone but are great for travel. Most people don't like to type on screen.
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