Ultrabook sales failing to meet expectations

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The first batch of ultrabooks are off to an uninspired start with sales expected to land well short of manufacturers' early projections. Sources speaking with DigiTimes say that Acer and Asus are expected to hawk around 100,000 units each by the end of this year -- far less than their original target of moving 200,000 to 300,000 machines.

Ultrabooks are intended to be trendy thin and light systems with plenty of horsepower and battery life. Along with bringing some Windows-based competition to the MacBook Air-dominated segment, the compact notebooks also serve as a stopgap against fleeting netbook sales (Intel's Atom platform has yet to gain traction with tablets).

Although manufacturers have largely met those guidelines, they haven't been able to do so at an appealing enough price, apparently. Pricing is mostly on target in the US and Europe, but that isn't the case in Asian markets.The sources said Taiwanese pricing puts Asus' 11.6 and 13.3-inch ultrabooks at the rough equivalent of $1,205 to $1,660 -- well beyond the sub-$1,000 territory Intel is aiming for. Likewise, Acer's 13.3-inch Aspire S3 is priced at the equivalent of $1,101 in Taiwan, which is said to be $100 more expensive than a similarly equipped MacBook Air.

Given the shaky performance so far, Acer and Asus are reportedly hesitant to ramp up orders. Despite the "unclear market demand," the sources believe ultrabooks could account for 10% of the entire notebook market by next March or April when Ivy Bridge-based models start rolling off the assembly line. That figure is "likely" to reach 20 to 30% by the fourth quarter of 2012, coinciding with the launch of Windows 8. Toshiba, HP and Lenovo are expected to join Acer and Asus in the near future. Some ultrabook-makers are undoubtedly waiting for CES 2012 in January.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/46089-ultrabook-sales-failing-to-meet-expectations.html

 

[Guest]

"The sources said Taiwanese pricing puts Asus' 11.6 and 13.3-inch ultrabooks at the rough equivalent of $1,205 to $1,660 -- well beyond the sub-$1,000 territory Intel is aiming for. Likewise, Acer's 13.3-inch Aspire S3 is priced at the equivalent of $1,101 in Taiwan, which is said to be $100 more expensive than a similarly equipped MacBook Air."

So let me get this straight, they didn't meet the price target in Taiwan where the products are actually made, but they met those targets in US? And then they have disappointing sales where the inferior S3 costs MORE than the MBA?

 

[amstech]

They aren't that much different then a laptop and you pay alot for the specs.
Did they think these were going to take off? Yeah right.

 

[nazartp]

I'm an avid photographer. Would love to be able not to drag a heavy full-sized laptop to preview photos at the day's end or to shoot tethered. However, unless these guys do away with Intel integrated graphics at these prices, I'm very hesitant to buy. BTW, Macs don't tickle my fancy because I would need a whole new set of licenses for Photoshop, etc.

 

[Zilpha]

The problem with devices like these is that it's not a "must-have-immediately" sort of thing, like the iPad was when it came out. Most folks who already have notebooks look at those and say, "It's nice, and maybe I will get one when I upgrade, but my current /whatevermodel/ is fine right now."

So, we don't upgrade, and then it looks like there isn't a demand for the machines. There's an interest, they just aren't going to strike gold like Apple did with the iPad.

 

[LinkedKube]

At the rate the technology is advancing with shrinking of silicon dies it will be a few years before ultra books be able to run great video and still be as thing w/o burning your leg hair off.

 

[Greg S]

Ultrabooks are small laptops with small screens with small performance. None of them instant boot, none of them can handle real applications besides internet and office. They can't play games, they can't run my essentials like CS5.5 design premium either. All for a higher price than normal laptops.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

nazartp said:
I'm an avid photographer. Would love to be able not to drag a heavy full-sized laptop to preview photos at the day's end or to shoot tethered. However, unless these guys do away with Intel integrated graphics at these prices, I'm very hesitant to buy. BTW, Macs don't tickle my fancy because I would need a whole new set of licenses for Photoshop, etc.

One the main reason people tell me when they buy a Mac is because of video/photo editing, as a photograher is it better to have a Mac or PC?

 

[BrownPaper]

aj_the_kidd said:

nazartp said:
I'm an avid photographer. Would love to be able not to drag a heavy full-sized laptop to preview photos at the day's end or to shoot tethered. However, unless these guys do away with Intel integrated graphics at these prices, I'm very hesitant to buy. BTW, Macs don't tickle my fancy because I would need a whole new set of licenses for Photoshop, etc.

One the main reason people tell me when they buy a Mac is because of video/photo editing, as a photograher is it better to have a Mac or PC?

Photoshop is available on Windows, and it is the same as Mac version. For video editing, there is Premiere and Sony Vegas. Macs used to be good for video editing, but Final Cut Pro X was a huge disappointment for pros.

More and more creative professionals are using PC's instead of Macs.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

Cool, I've always been curious to know if the point about choosing Macs over PC because of Video and Photo editing was true. Its funny that the people who bought Macs didn't buy any editing software or didn't do anything that you couldn't do on a PC, to which i would say, "be honest you bought a Mac to look cool, didn't you" Not that there's anything wrong with that, just don't BS me

 

[Guest]

How can the sales be high when the price is almost as high as an Macbook Air? Intel is-day dreaming. Drop it to $700-800 mark instead of $1000 mark, any they'll sell like hotcake.

 

[example1013]

So the solution they came up with to compete with Apple's dominant product was to flood the market with 5 "ultrabooks" of varying specs and price points? You know what happens when someone goes to the store? They ask "I'd like to buy an ultrabook", the guy at Best Buy goes "which brand and what specs", they give him a blank stare for a few seconds, and then bolt for the Apple Store.

I think all this ultra-portability is stupid given the kind of performance and battery life you can get on an only marginally better computer, even as a consumer of Apple products. We're not all CentiPads, after all.

 

[Guest]

Battery life on these ultrabooks is outstanding, around 7 hours use and 2 weeks standby.

Performance is also really good, depending on the model obviously but an Intel Core i7-2677M is, by not means, a slow processor.

As for the poor sales, I've not looked into it but I do know that the Zenbook, pretty much, sold out the day they became available.

While they don't instantly come on, the Zenbook boots in under ten seconds and comes out of sleep mode in under 2 seconds. Pretty d*mn good in my opinion.

You guys really should read about them before talking about how much they suck because, well, they don't.

Check it out: http://zenbook.asus.com/
Personally, I think they are awesome.

Best,
Kevin