SlashGear Japan
Occasionally arch rumor site Digitimes takes a break from speculation and leaks and does some research into PC hardware sales performance. Latest niche to come under their microscope is the “ultra-thin” notebook, generally based on Intel’s CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) platform, and offering a middle-point between the battery longevity of netbooks and the performance of full-sized notebooks. Unfortunately for manufacturers, Digitimes claims the ultra-thins will only account for 4-percent of total global notebook shipments in 2009.
The issue, according to their research, is price, with the ultra-thins simply too expensive for their own good. Netbooks are offering better battery life at ever-falling prices, while budget notebooks are also falling in cost but offer much higher performance than the ultra-thins. European and North American demand apparently remains low, and Digitimes predict no significant improvement despite some big names – HP and Dell, among others – entering the segment in Q4 2009.
One Response to “Ultra-thin notebook sales languishing?”
Aerows August 28, 2009
The main problem with ultra-thins is cost/performance ratio is pretty terrible. I can look past less than stellar performance (4500mhd + CULV) if they are cheap – which the Dell 11z almost gets, but should be a tad cheaper due to the celeron 723 and only 1 dimm slot (and 3-cell). The Acer 1410 looks to be a little better, but it is still about $70 more than I want to spend.
They need to somehow get a decent graphics chipset into these things – something modern that won’t kill battery life, or they need to drop the price. Honestly, the Acer 1410 and the Dell 11z have the specs that netbooks should have had to begin with. Intel graphics are just plain pathetic on both the performance and driver front; however much they charge manufacturers for them is too much because they automatically cripple performance compared to nVidia and ATI integrated solutions.
People don’t want to buy a notebook that is more costly than a netbook, but doesn’t perform significantly better. I’m looking at you youtube HD video and a decent experience playing World of Warcraft.
Neutral