Can Ultrabooks revive the falling Windows laptop market?
Intel had previously made a prediction that Ultrabooks will take up the global market by storm and could possibly contribute a lot to the revival of Windows based laptops market. Last month Intel cut the outlook for its Q3 earnings by £1.1 billion. This clearly indicates the fact that Ultrabooks are not selling as Intel would have expected it to. There are a lot of factors which are contributing to the fall in sales of Ultrabooks. Most important reason for the degradation in sales of Ultrabooks is its heavy pricing. At £1000 per unit, Ultrabooks are not the most viable option for consumers.
Intel had originally planned to deliver Ultrabooks at a price tag of around £600-£700.However the expensive integration of SSDs and several other factors had forced the company to push the higher price tag on consumers. Although products of similar panache like Macbook Air are doing very well, Intel has failed to make similar impact on its consumers.
Another factor which seems to have contributed to the reduction in sales of Ultrabooks is the rise in popularity of tablet phones. Even though high end tablets available today cannot match the performance of Ultrabook, consumers are increasingly having an affinity for tablets. According to analysts, the yearly growth of notebooks will fall less than 5% as tablet computers have made a dent on the demand for notebooks.
If the current trends are anything to go by, then tablet PC shipments will overtake notebook shipments in most markets before 2015.Research reports from IHS iSuppli points at this direction. The firm had previously pointed out that 22million units of Ultrabooks will be shipped globally during 2012.However recent research by the company has found that the popularity of Ultrabooks is declining.IHS iSuppli has now reduced the estimate figure of Ultrabook sales to 10.3 million. The firm points out the unappealing price as the foremost reason for this decline in popularity. There is also criticism going around about the marketing strategy of Intel with Ultrabooks. There is a widespread confusion between what an Ultrabook is and what is an ultrathin notebook.
If Intel has to recover from this situation, it will surely have to reconsider the price aspect and revise their marketing strategy. More shipments could be expected if they could deliver the product at a price tag of around £600-£650.Although the rays of hope are not completely over for Ultrabooks. The arrival of Windows 8 is expected to bring some improvements in the sales of Ultrabooks. Intel could really benefit if they associate with Microsoft and promote Ultrabooks by highlighting the Windows element in their products. A new processor from Intel which is code named as ‘Haswell ‘is under development. The new processor is expected to be launched by the later part of 2013.The launch of this processor is also expected to improve sales in the Ultrabook market.
In the future a neck to neck completion could be expected between Ultrabooks and tablets if Intel revises the pricing of Ultrabooks. Windows 8 tablets with keyboard docking function is also on the cards of several companies. Arrival of such tablets will also test the roots of Ultrabooks.
