Earlier this month, PC makers started announcing their first Ultrabooks, the thin and light notebooks that was first conceived of and designed by chip maker Intel. But upcoming designs for the Ultrabook might look a lot more like Apple's iPad than the MacBook Air. News.com reports that during a presentation at the Citi Technology Conference this week, Intel's CFO Stacy Smith showed a more tablet-like design for a future Ultrabook. The change in design was to bring something new to the notebook space, with Smith saying, "Form factors in the notebook market have been somewhat stagnant over the last several years."
While the next version of the notebook will still have a physical keyboard, Intel has created a concept design that has the Ultrabook's screen turning and flipping over so it covers the keyboard and can then double as a touch screen tablet. Smith said the design won't be released by PC makers this year but could come out in the next 18 months.
Smith also talked about Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Earlier this year Microsoft announced that processors based on designs from Intel rival ARM will be able to run Windows 8. This week Smith said, "There's going to be the Win 8 that's for PCs and Ultrabooks. That's where legacy applications are enabled. You're not going to see ARM in that segment of the marketplace." As for smartphones and tablets, Smith said that Intel will be able to compete with ARM for those kinds of products. He said, "The key for us is to just deliver more performance in that form factor, more features in that form factor. We think that enables us to do well and enables us to win our fair share of the [market]."
As we reported earlier this week, next week's Intel Developer Forum will feature at least two panels where both Intel and Microsoft reps will talk about Windows 8.
Image via Intel
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