“One of Intel’s big programs for this year has been the development and marketing of a new line of slimline notebooks called Ultrabooks. This product is really following in Apple’s MacBook Air footprints, a product that has been very successful for Apple,” Tim Bajarin writes for TechPinions.
“We have been privy to some very interesting research that shows that the market for laptops appears to be bifurcating into one that is focused on low cost notebooks and the other on the higher end of the notebook market,” Bajarin writes. “The research suggests that the mid market for laptops is declining and that laptops priced at $699-$899 may be going away as users either opt for low cost laptops or if they want more powerful laptops, buy up to laptops in the $999-$1299 range instead.”
Bajarin writes, “Part of this lack of overwhelming interest in the $699-$799 price range is also due to the iPad. The interest in the iPad remains high, and right now from our research we are learning much higher than notebooks by the mass market. Because of that UltraBooks priced around the range of the iPad seem to of less interest. It appears for the mass market next generation notebooks need to be lower cost than the iPad or much higher and include valuable innovations in the upper end to make it attractive.”
Read more in the full article here.