PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
A study by Market research outfit Juniper has said that Intel’s ultrabook category will "re-energise" the notebook market, with most notebooks choosing the form factor in five years.
Juniper said that the ultrabooks would quickly grow, outpacing the growth of tablets, but shipments will still fail to match tablets. The company predicted that 253 million tablets will ship by 2016, compared with 178 million ultrabooks.
"While Intel’s control of the brand ensures that ultrabooks stand out from traditional notebooks, vendors face a balancing act in terms of product strategy," said Juniper analyst Daniel Ashdown.
"Meeting Intel’s specification secures brand status and funding, but the step-change from notebooks means many of today’s ultrabooks are too expensive for many consumers."
Unsurprisingly Juniper said that Windows 8 would play a "pivotal role" with features such as with extended battery life, always-on-always-connected and other next-gen OS features cited as driving adoption.
