Netbook Race-To-The-Bottom Revisited? – Could Ultrathin Value Notebooks Threaten Intel Ultrabooks’ Success?

PC Mag’s Tim Bajarin suggests that PC vendors will release cheapo thin&light laptops that will undercut the price of Intel’s Ultrabooks.

Bajarin notes that major Windows PC makers are using Intel’s Ultrabook spec to design some of the best laptops ever seen in the Windows space and which represent the future of all clamshell-based laptops, but that vendors can’t Intel’s Ultrabook trademark unless their laptops conform to the chipmaker’s established specifications, which include Intel chippery, and which means Ultrabooks come at steep prices ranging from $699 to $1,199.

However, he says says that some of PC vendors are planning new sleek and relatively thin laptops they’re calling “ultrathin value notebooks” that should be priced somewhere in the $349 to $599 range, further noting that laptops selling in the $299 to $599 price range currently represent 70 percent of all laptops sold around the world. Bajarin also notes that these “ultrathin value notebooks” will not be just upsized netbooks, but that many of the designs he’s seen, especially ones powered by certain AMD processors, are actually pretty powerful, and while a bit thicker than the Intel Ultrabook’s maximum of 22mm, they represent a vast improvement over today’s thicker laptops, although perhaps with not quite the battery life you would get in a real Ultrabook. He also expects some Windows on ARM (WOA) notebooks to debut priced at no more than $599, and cites obvious concern that if a raft of low-cost ultrathins come out about the same time as Ultrabooks, they could undermine Intel’s target for Ultrabooks to become 40 percent of the notebook market over the first year they’re available. Or not.

For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403317,00.asp