Affordable UltraBooks Coming, But They Won’t Necessarily Be Called UltraBooks (Or MacBooks)

Tech.pinions’ Ben Bajarin predicts looming laptop wars coming — not between Macs and Windows based notebooks, but intramural rivalry between Intel-spec.ed Ultrabooks and non-Ultrabook thin and light laptop designs from PC vendors.

Bajarin says one thing he’s learned in 12 years as an industry analyst it is that OEMs don’t generally like being told what they can and can’t do with their hardware designs, and while every OEM wants to take advantage of the thin and light designs driving UltraBooks, they may want to vary the CPU capabilities, but if they want to use, say, an non-Intel chip such as AMD’s 2nd-Generation A-Series APU, codenamed Trinity in a design that looks exactly like an UltraBook, they can’t call it an UltraBook, since the latter is an Intel trademark with strict guidelines attached. He notes that HP recently launched a new laptop line called SleekBooks, and he expects that similar Ultrathins will enter the market well below the price of UltraBooks, suggesting that with all of these options consumers may very well go with price and walk with with something other than an UltraBook – perhaps even not knowing they didn’t purchase a real UltraBook.

Bajarin also suggests that while Apple’s iPad has for some users served as a supplement to their existing notebook making it easier to delay the purchase of a new system, he thinks that pent-up demand for laptop upgrades is substantial, and whether it’s UltraBooks or generic thin and lights that will look and smell like UltraBooks but be priced quite a bit lower, he anticipates at least a short term positive spike in notebook sales over the next few years.

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