News - Ultrabook uncertainty for component makers

[HEXUS]

Production expense leaves manufacturers cautious on Ultrabook future.

Read more.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The problem is that too many of the Ultrabooks are quite expensive and priced too near the Apple MacBook Air.

AMD Trinity is being targeted at similar ultrathin laptops,but in the $599 range, so I think the added competition should mean prices should at least drop for the cheaper Ultrabooks.

[Fraz]

viscous business circle --> vicious business circle

[Spud1]

This does indeed explain why no-one can produce an ultrabook that competes directly with the macbook air - all of the competition with similar build quality and features are priced over and above the air, with those that are priced below the air suffering from either a feature drought or more often with poor quality (Acer I am looking at you!)

I suspect we won't see competitive ultrabooks until we can get to an off-the-shelf component model, which can't be too far off. Once manufacturers can put together a standard chassis with standard components inside, we'll see mass production and then hopefully some sensbile pricing that doesn't include an Apple Tax!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The MacBook Air is shiny though!! The Ultrabooks I have seen don't have that same factor IMHO.

[shaithis]

The advert for the Dell ultrabook makes it sound like the second coming....

[KeyboardDemon]

This does indeed explain why no-one can produce an ultrabook that competes directly with the macbook air - all of the competition with similar build quality and features are priced over and above the air, with those that are priced below the air suffering from either a feature drought or more often with poor quality (Acer I am looking at you!)

I suspect we won't see competitive ultrabooks until we can get to an off-the-shelf component model, which can't be too far off. Once manufacturers can put together a standard chassis with standard components inside, we'll see mass production and then hopefully some sensbile pricing that doesn't include an Apple Tax!

The MacBook Air is shiny though!! The Ultrabooks I have seen don't have that same factor IMHO.

At 850-900GBP the Asus Zen books look to be a good runner for these, the ones I have seen have a solid construction, shiny spun aluminium finish and they are powered by i5 processors with Bang & Olufsen speakers. They don't feel flimsy like some of the other brands and in my opinion, they look a lot better.

[tickedon]

At 850-900GBP the Asus Zen books look to be a good runner for these, the ones I have seen have a solid construction, shiny spun aluminium finish and they are powered by i5 processors with Bang & Olufsen speakers. They don't feel flimsy like some of the other brands and in my opinion, they look a lot better.

At £850, it's the same as a MacBook Air: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ook_air/select

ASUS et al simply cannot compete in the minds of most consumers with the Apple brand. They need their models to be MUCH cheaper.

We've seen it with tablets - an iPad at £399 has a huge chunk of the market, I think I saw a figure of 80% or something for Europe recently. Despite lots of tablets being a bit cheaper at £300ish, it took an £89 HP TouchPad to get sales anywhere near it.

[Spud1]

At £850, it's the same as a MacBook Air: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ook_air/select

ASUS et al simply cannot compete in the minds of most consumers with the Apple brand. They need their models to be MUCH cheaper.

It's actually £200 cheaper than the equivalent air - you have to compare it against the £999 model which has the same CPU, Ram and disk space.

So actually Asus are competing quite well on price here, which I didn't really expect. The big question is going to be the quality and reliability compared to an air, and that is impossible to quantify without holding one in your hand.

But still, you're right - when you are spending that kind of money its not much more of a premium to get the Air - and if you take student or HE discounts into account that £200 gap gets much much smaller.

[KeyboardDemon]

I think maybe I view Ultrabooks in a completely different way to the way people view computers like the Mac Book Air, if I spent most of my time working on a PC and needed a mobile companion device that was easy to carry and use when working away from the office such as in a plane or during field visits then a Mac Book Air wouldn't appeal to me, even at the same price.

The main reason being is that if we are using software that is not available for a Mac so we would either need to run Windows on that Mac, which adds an extra expense or find a Mac version of the software which again, we would have to buy, and some packages don't come cheap, like Sage for the sake of an example. Working in an office that is all Windows the office would have sufficient licences to cover Windows versions of the software required, so it costs nothing more to add that to the Ultrabook, while it would mean having to pay for a Mac version if it's available or buy a version Bootcamp or something similar to run Windows on the Mac.

Perhaps the Air might appeal as a standalone device or if I already had a Mac, but as a gamer I would be able to install Steam and load up some of my games as well so I can play when taking a break. With a Mac Book Air, while there are some games that will work on this, a lot of the latest games don't come out for a long time after I have already stopped playing the PC versions and from what I have heard they don't play as well when running through Bootcamp.

[Spud1]

I think maybe I view Ultrabooks in a completely different way to the way people view computers like the Mac Book Air, if I spent most of my time working on a PC and needed a mobile companion device that was easy to carry and use when working away from the office such as in a plane on during field visits then a Mac Book Air wouldn't appeal to me, even at the same price.

Most importantly for me and many others is that if we are using software that is not available for a Mac then we would either need to run Windows on that Mac, which adds an extra expense or find a Mac version of the software. Working in an office that is all Windows the office would have sufficient licences to cover Windows versions of the software required, so it costs nothing more to add that to the Ultrabook, while it would mean having to pay for a Mac version if it's available or buy a version Bootcamp or something similar to run Windows on the Mac.

Perhaps the Air might appeal as a standalone device or if I already had a Mac, but as a gamer I would be able to install Steam and load up some of my games as well so I can play when taking a break. With a Mac Book Air, while there are some games that will work on this, a lot of the latest games don't come out for a long time after I have already stopped playing the PC versions and from what I have heard they don't play as well when running through Bootcamp.

Hang on a sec...the mac air is an ultra book..one of the (if not the) first to be commercially successful too.

The whole windows/osx debate is a bit moot too as its trivial to install windows on an air - either via bootcamp or via Parallels/vmware - and they really do run every bit as well.

I don't game on my mac air as that's not what it's for - but I have done in the past (civ 5 via steam) without any issue.

The important thing with a PC is the hardware - not the OS - as the OS is nearly always interchangeable. Personally I own and use a Mac Pro as my main machine - but it doesn't have OSX installed anywhere, it's all windows. My air does have OSX as it's main OS, but then I have parallels for running my work things that are windows only. It would be just as easy to install windows on this and use it full time too.

Macs are not that special since they jumped to intel - they are just generally very very well made PC hardware with a distinctly average (but very usable) OS installed by default.

[jim]

The whole windows/osx debate is a bit moot too as its trivial to install windows on an air - either via bootcamp or via Parallels/vmware - and they really do run every bit as well.

That's only true if you already have a copy of windows. Otherwise it's quite a hefty expense.

[KeyboardDemon]

Hang on a sec...the mac air is an ultra book..one of the (if not the) first to be commercially successful too.

Well yes and no. The Mac Book Air was the first to use that form factor, but it is Intel who are behind creating the Ultrabook label and they are currently trying a pass a Patent through on this form factor that requires certain elements to be in place before a laptop can be classified as such. Those elements being that they are

designed to feature reduced size and weight, and extended battery life without compromising performance. They use low-power Intel processors with integrated graphics, solid-state drives for responsiveness, and unibody chassis to fit larger batteries into smaller cases.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well yes and no. The Mac Book Air was the first to use that form factor, but it is Intel who are behind creating the Ultrabook label and they are currently trying a pass a Patent through on this form factor that requires certain elements to be in place before a laptop can be classified as such. Those elements being that they are

More sodding fail.

"designed to feature reduced size and weight, and extended battery life without compromising performance. They use low-power Intel processors with integrated graphics, solid-state drives for responsiveness, and unibody chassis to fit larger batteries into smaller cases."

That is the ONLY thing which should be allowed and neither should Apple be allowed to patent it either. All the other stuff should be rejected. The others are generic features that plenty of other companies use.

[Spud1]

More sodding fail.

"designed to feature reduced size and weight, and extended battery life without compromising performance. They use low-power Intel processors with integrated graphics, solid-state drives for responsiveness, and unibody chassis to fit larger batteries into smaller cases."

That is the ONLY thing which should be allowed and neither should Apple be allowed to patent it either. All the other stuff should be rejected. The others are generic features that plenty of other companies use.

Indeed - there is no way that they should be able to patent a range of laptops at such a high level. Trademark the name (ala "macbook"), fine, but the whole concept? Even Apple don't get away with that

Especially when Intel don't even make or sell these things, and Apple was the first co to be successful doing so.

jim that's true you do have to add on another £70 for Windows 7 if you want it, which may be the clincher for some people.

[KeyboardDemon]

I don't think Intel are trying to stop people from using a unibody, low power Intel processors, integrated graphics, solid state drives or a combination of all of those parts in a computer. I think what they want is to set a minimum requirement for anyone to use the label Ultrabook in the description of the item and therefore prevent companies producing hardware that has AMD or other branded APUs from having a similar design released to sell as an Ultrabook.