Intel Bets 2012 on Ultrabooks

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.

  • yzfr1guy
    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
    Reply
  • mrpijey
    Is this the same guy that predicted UMPCs would be a success?
    Reply
  • vaughn2k
    Ultra books with Atom... sheesH!
    Reply
  • stryk55
    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.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    Oh yeah? Well, STFU, Intel! :D
    Reply
  • RipperjackAU
    vaughn2kUltra books with Atom... sheesH!
    Unless the Ultra books come with THIS Atom:


    Then yea... Not interested!
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I bet against Intel on this one.
    Reply
  • house70
    I'm afraid it's just wishful thinking.
    Reply
  • leandrodafontoura
    What happens after everyone in the world already has a notebook/ultrabook...what intel is gonna do??
    Reply
  • rottingsheep
    overpriced.

    i'm still wishing for a day when laptops become as configurable as a desktop pc.
    Reply