Market research firm IHS iSuppli predicts that ultrabooks priced in the $700 range will not directly compete with Apple’s MacBook Air, since they will have smaller displays and hard-disk drives instead of solid-state drives.
Higher-priced ultrabooks will feature touch screens and Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors later this year, but so will the MacBook Air, notes IHS iSuppli.
“More compromises will come in display, storage and memory. Cheap ultrabook screens will stay stuck at 1366 x 768, compared to the 13-inch MacBook Air’s 1440 x 900,” reports ReadWriteWeb. “Perhaps most significantly, storage will likely be handled by a conventional 2.5-inch hard drive instead of the pricier solid-state drives that make using a high-end ultrabook such a fast, seamless experience. Memory capacity will also be less: 2GB versus 4GB in higher-end systems.”
In order to make a profit on a $700 ultrabook, manufacturers need to get the cost of materials and production down to $500 per unit. As a result, some may seem no different than a low-end laptop.
“An ultrabook in a plastic enclosure just looks like a thin laptop, as opposed to an entirely new product,” says Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst for iSuppli.
“The real question, perhaps, is not whether PC makers can come up with $700 ultrabooks to appeal to cheapskates, but how much they’ll have to charge for upcoming high-end Windows 8 ultrabooks that really can take on the MacBook Air,” comments the article.
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