Ultrabooks predicted to take 10 per cent of laptop market in 2012

Sep 25, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Taipei - Small, thin, powerful but costly PCs known as Ultrabooks will take a 10 per cent share of the world laptop market next year, a market analyst has forecast.

The small PCs use a specific type of Intel microprocessor and claim long battery life. Ultrabooks will eat into netbook computer sales with some 20 million shipments next year, said Sean Yang, an assistant vice president with the IT market research firm TrendForce in Taipei.

Taiwan-based Acer and Asustek Computer, both among the original designers of thin but less powerful netbooks, are expected to launch Ultrabooks in October, Yang said. Those product releases would beat as many as ten other PC makers to the market, giving the two Taiwan companies up to a quarter of the global market share, he predicted.

Ultrabooks have been described as mini-PCs just 20 millimetres thick with tablet-like features but closer in size and performance to Apple's MacBook Air. They use the Microsoft Windows operating system and are designed especially for cloud computing.

Shipments of the third-generation MacBook Air totalled around half a million in June, the Taiwan-based DigiTimes newspaper reported.

Acer is making Ultrabooks for the mass market while Asustek is targeting the high-end market, Yang said. Prices will range from 799 to 1,099 US dollars, he predicted, and likely competitors for the Taiwanese computer giants include HP, Lenovo and Toshiba.

Taiwanese manufacturers should hold their market advantage after the initial phase by keeping costs down through a mature local supply chain, Yang said.