Last May at Computex, processor maker Intel first announced and showed off the hardware concept design for the Ultrabook, a thin and light notebook that offers up more hardware power and features than the traditional "netbook". The Ultrabook design seems to have caught on, at least according to one report. A new Digitimes story reports that a number of PC makers will be releasing notebooks using Intel"s Ultrabook design concept later this fall. The article, which uses unnamed sources, says that the companies involved will begin mass producing the first Ultrabooks in September.
Companies that have signed on to make Ultrabooks include the biggest in the business such as HP, Dell, Acer, Levono, and Asus. In fact the article claims that Asus will be the first out of the gate to release a notebook with the Ultrabook design. It added that Acer and Dell might start mass producing its first Ultrabooks in September but the actual release may be delayed. HP"s Ultrabook entry might even be delayed until early 2012.
The Ultrabook concept has Intel"s "Sandy Bridge" based Core i5 and i7 processors inside instead of the low powered Atom processor that Intel has inside a number of netbooks. It"s also supposed to have a long battery life, be less than an inch thick and cost less than $1,000. Back in May Intel predicted that by the end of 2012 about 40 percent of all notebooks sold will be in the category that the Ultrabook is supposed to serve.