Asus and Acer have slashed their ultrabook orders by a whacking 40 per cent, just weeks after the superslim laptop range was officially rolled out. Word is that high prices are to blame, with first month sales well below expectation. The question is, can the Ultrabook, billed by Intel as a laptop saviour, survive? Read on to get all the details.
Ultrabooks, which use Intel’s ultra low voltage chipsets and are built to set specifications from the chip manufacturer, were meant to save the ailing laptop market. But both Asus and Acer have cut their orders for the rest of 2011 to between 150,000 and 180,000 units, after initially demanding between 250,000 and 300,000 ultrabooks between them.
Sources close to suppliers have suggested that sales have been poor. It’s not surprising when an entry-level Asus ZenBook costs £999 and Acer’s S3 comes in at £899. These are not cheap MacBook Air alternatives by any stretch of the imagination.
Ultrabook makers are said to be unconcerned, believing that demand will soar by the end of 2012, when Windows 8 debuts. But with tablet sales surging, surely they’ll have to cut prices in order to entice customers to indulge in an ultrabook. Otherwise, the category could be dead before Microsoft gives the official green light to its next-gen OS.
Via Digitimes
