Report: Ultrabook Sales are on the Rise

Looks as though Intel's Ultrabook form factor is catching on with consumers, as NPD Group reports that sales are off to a fast start, capturing nearly 11-percent of all $700+ Windows notebooks sales at U.S. retail through the first five months of 2012.

According to the report, the overall Windows market for notebook PC sales fell by 17-percent. However, Ultrabooks helped propel the premium market with Windows notebooks priced over $700 by just 3-percent. Those priced over $900 actually increased 39-percent compared to the same timeframe last year.

"Ultrabooks have helped establish a market for more premium-priced Windows notebooks at retail," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group. "The share of sales that the $700+ notebook segment represents jumped from about 12 percent in 2011 to nearly 14 percent in 2012 as a result of the solid market acceptance Ultrabooks have gained.  Consumers continue to respond positively to finally being offered stylish, thinner, and more premium device offerings than ever before within the Windows ecosystem."

Strong sales in the Ultrabook sector may be a sign that consumers are willing to spend more money on a premium product. NPD points out that selling prices have averaged $927 over the first five months of 2012, and only dipped below $900, to $885, for the first time in May. This is obviously way above the Windows market price of $510 average pricing -- an average which has only risen by $13 since the same period in 2011, partially due to the growth in Ultrabook sales.

Baker said that lower-cost Ultrabooks, some as low as $699, will be the hot form factor as the crucial back-to-school selling season approaches.

"As we look towards the fourth quarter, the expected launch of Windows 8, a wide variety of Ultrabooks with touch screens, and convertible form factors should continue to make this class of product top of mind with the consumer as well as provide a much needed revenue boost to the entire PC ecosystem," he said.

  • mayankleoboy1
    good for Intel.
    Bad for APPLE
    High Five !
    Reply
  • cornandbeans
    Not surprised, everyone around me is thinking of getting one too.
    Reply
  • ohim
    too bad they all have to cope with that crap video card from intel
    Reply
  • AznCracker
    ohimtoo bad they all have to cope with that crap video card from intel Well the ivy brudge ones come with an hd 4000 which is pretty decent for most things.

    I was thinking of getting an ultraboook but i got a dell xps 15z w/ i-7 and gt 525m for about the same price.
    Reply
  • molo9000
    ohimtoo bad they all have to cope with that crap video card from intel
    Nobody buys these for gaming.
    At least current Intel graphics are decent enough to play most games. High graphics settings don't matter when playing on a 13" display.
    Reply
  • DroKing
    is amd verison out yet? Im not interested in intel at all.
    Reply
  • tsnor
    DroKingis amd verison out yet? Im not interested in intel at all.
    Ultrabook = Intel brand, you'll never see an Intel ultrabook.

    Sleekbook is the term HP uses for an AMD ultrabook. Not sure if others use it.

    "Im not interested in intel at all." you should be for many workloads. gaming for one. For notebooks I use E450 (too slow) and mobile i5-2400 (work system). Agree trinity based notebook better choice for me than intel parts. But the i5 system with discrete nvidia card is really nice.

    Reply
  • boiler1990
    DroKingis amd verison out yet? Im not interested in intel at all."Ultrabook" is a term coined by Intel (and trademarked, I believe). I don't think AMD is going to have many options since their partnerships are quite...slim...
    Reply
  • DroKing
    I know Ultrabooks are only Intel's. I am simply asking for AMD verison aka Ultrathins or whatever the name it was. btw tsnor, I will never be interested in Intel period. I am a PURE AMD fanboy. I dont care if their processors are 5-10 percent faster for 20-40 percent more expensive plus I hate intel because of their dirty business back in 90's aka athlon supremacy era.
    Reply
  • DroKing, last I saw, those CS5 benchmarks run on this site showed like a 6x difference... not 10% buddy. No offense, bt the CPU difference is vast. Anand testing the GPUs head to head and Trinity was only about 5-10% faster in GPU benchmarks so while Intel's GPUs are crap, AMD's top of the line was hardly a homerun in the mobile lineup. Going to 17W probably doesn't help matters either for AMD so I actuall expect them to have very similar GPU performance in the ultrabook/ultrathin market. Where AMD will win is with price which is good for the entire market. It brings the bottom line up.

    What I like most about these numbers is that Microsoft claims tablets will outsell notebooks next year, but it certainly isn't looking like that will be the case. People seem OK with paying a little more for a much better product. Windows RT will be a failure and ultrabook convertibles are likely to be what the consumer puts more stock into.
    Reply