Intel CEO Paul Otellini is continuing to push the PC processor company"s Ultrabooks vision to the press. The thin and light notebook design, which Intel first announced last May, became a reality earlier this month with Asus and Acer both launching their own Ultrabooks-based laptops. In a new video interview this week with the cable TV-based Fox Business Network, Otellini said that a new version of the Ultrabooks would be released in 2012, around the time of the launch of Microsoft"s Windows 8 operating system.
He said, "When Windows 8 comes out, you"ll see hybrid models that integrate the functions of a notebook and a tablet into a single device." Windows 8"s Metro interface was designed with touch screen tablets and monitors in mind. Otellini didn"t go into detail about how this new Ultrabook design would work. However he seemed to confirm that the world"s two biggest PC makers, HP and Dell, would offer Ultrabooks at some point. He said, "Going into next year, you"ll see new designs come out from Dell and HP."
Otellini also gave his opinion on HP possibly exiting the HP business and spinning off the division to form its own stand alone company. He said, "I hope that they decide to stay in the business." He added, " ... to leave digital consumer electronics would, to me, be a very strange decision to make." The final decision will be made by new HP CEO Meg Whitman by the end of October. Otellini will be meeting with Whitman later this week.