Intel Ultrabooks attack tablet market

5/31/2011 1:45 AM EDT

From the success of Macbook Air 11.6" model, it is evident that there is a big market for such devices. But I guess, the ULV CPUs from Intel and Fusion CPUs from AMD already address this market. Only thing Intel would want to do is add some decent graphics to the ULV CPUs.

5/31/2011 10:22 AM EDT

Power consumption together with acceptable performance is the key to win the ultra-portable gadget market. Most people use their iPAD just for facebook and simple reading. I don't think it needs fancy high speed processor but nice graphics and long battery life are very important. Why ARM can win over x86 architecture in such application? I think Intel knows much better than all of us.

5/31/2011 11:59 AM EDT

Intel is taking various direction to reduce the momentum of ARM based tablet. If Ultrabook likes just like a laptop, it may be a good device to replace current laptop computer. It will not look appeal to me to replace a tablet, especially iPad. There are a couple things, other than power saving, that iPad offer and a laptop is hard to compete - eBook reader, newspaper reader, casual gaming. Among all, light weight and form factor are some of the key elements that today's laptop is not near.

5/31/2011 12:21 PM EDT

I'd love to hear any comments from people at Computex this week.

5/31/2011 1:42 PM EDT

This is going to go against the industry momentum towards centralizing the computational heavy lifting through cloud computing. Intel is going to have to come up with a reason to have all of that power at the edge if this is going to fly. Otherwise it will be tough to justify the extra cost and battery use.

Larry M.

5/31/2011 1:46 PM EDT

I think this is a wise decision by the management team. Business is business. When you get into something too late, it is very hard to play catch up.

5/31/2011 4:18 PM EDT

I had an Windows Based Pocket computer afforded me by the company I worked for between 2001 and 2005. It had full WIFI access and all the MS-Office compatible stuff you could shake a fist at.

It barely got used. There were others at my company who would say the same thing.

When it comes to open architecture, Microsoft whipped Apple for volume of sales from the 80s through all the way to this decade. Largely because of open hardware and software architecture.

I've seen Windows CE based stuff that persisted in being MS-Klunky well into this decade and I don't see them changing their rigidity.

I'm betting that MS-Windows variations remain MS-Kluny and Apple-Apps remain Apple-Snobbish and the Droid Open Architecture continues to grow like crabgrass across the cloud and non-desktop market.

5/31/2011 8:56 PM EDT

@Underboat Boy: I like your tech metaphors!

5/31/2011 10:46 PM EDT

Intel is trying too hard to impress upon low power chips. They have been late and importantly missed the boat for the tablet segment but they can come up fast and strong. True that not many would want a high processor energy gulping tablet which needs to be plugged in every few hours.

6/1/2011 12:52 AM EDT

Complex instruction set processors will always use significantly more power than RISC processors using the same process technology.

Simplified operatin ssytems (Android, Chrome) are the natural platforms for mobile devices. As the role of complex operating systems diminishes in mobile devices, so will the role of CISC machines.
Tablets and moble devices will become 'smart' terminals to distributed complex systems running on the cloud of servers.

6/1/2011 9:38 AM EDT

I think the key to making a tablet killing ultrabook is the right combination of energy efficient CPU and graphics paired with a fast solid state drive. Which, as another poster noted, is basically what the Macbook Air series is all about. Again, Apple has seemed to find that balance in their second generation machines. Why can't other companies duplicate that combination at a lower price point? Maybe these new Intel microprocessors will do the trick.

6/1/2011 10:44 AM EDT

I don't think this is to be dismissed too cheaply, there are plenty of Tablet users who are yeaarning for a handheld which can do more and not be chained to Apples diktats on what you can have on your device.

6/1/2011 12:02 PM EDT

Ultimately, I suspect that the "tablet vs. notebook" race will shake out such they both continue to exist serving different applications. There will be some overlap, certainly, but tablets, at least for the near future, can't completely fill the job of a notebook.

The popularity of tablets is not a reflection of the uselessness of notebooks in general. It's a reflection of the fact that notebooks don't cover all application, just like desktops don't cover all. It's not yet time to stop advancing the state of the art in notebooks.

6/1/2011 12:19 PM EDT

Seems ONLY Apple is doing well in tablets, Rest everyone is reducing the production

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/06/01/jp_morgan_apples_ipad_rivals_reduce_build_plans_after_early_dose_of_reality.html

6/1/2011 4:50 PM EDT

I just checked my household and there are two Netbooks, two laptops, one Nook, and a desktop computer. An Ultrabook would be nice to replace all the above with some level of portability, but with CPU computational power that is equivalent to my collection of gadgets (not necessarily an ARM processors). So a universal solution could on the horizon with the Intel push on such products.

6/4/2011 9:18 AM EDT

Performance does matter, and it does sell. If there is only a slight performance gain, then I think most would go for the power savings. But which do you buy if there is a drastic performance difference?

6/5/2011 10:17 AM EDT

I think the tablet pretty much stole all the thunder from the book, in terms of consumer perception of what a mobile device could be.

6/5/2011 11:08 AM EDT

Intel is working on a chip technology that will cut the power in half.

6/5/2011 11:11 AM EDT

and I am trying to figure out why I need a tablet.
To me it is a large unusable cellphone and an hard to use low performance laptop

6/5/2011 1:16 PM EDT

Since workplace will provide the notebook there is no need to buy another. Communication becoming more important than computation, so the smartphone is my sole personal device.

6/6/2011 4:04 AM EDT

For more than two decades I have been waiting for a portable device with a biggish screen, decent communications capabillity and a battery life of more than a day. The first device that really did it for me (and believe me I have tried them all: Newton, Palm, Cassiopeia, etc) was the iPad. It could have been a low power laptop but battery life never made it much past a few hours. I have made the leap now, it would take a lot to make me go back to a laptop.