Ultrabook Manufacturers Limiting Initial Shipments in Face of MacBook Air Popularity
Top to bottom: MacBook Air, ASUS UX21, Toshiba Portege Z830, Acer Aspire S3, Lenovo IdeaPad U300s (Source: This is my next...) Apple's redesigned MacBook Air has proven popular with consumers, with the company reportedly pushing out
up to 500,000 units per month to satisfy demand. The product's success has drawn the interest of Intel and Windows PC manufacturers, who are beginning to roll out their own "Ultrabook" models to compete with the MacBook Air. But a
new report from
Digitimes claims that those manufacturers are merely testing the waters, limiting initial shipments to a combined 50,000 units.
First-tier notebook brand vendors Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek Computer, understanding that demand for notebooks is unlikely to recover in the fourth quarter, while Apple's products are taking up all the glory in the market, will limit their initial Ultrabook shipment volume to below 50,000 units for testing the water, according to sources from notebook makers.
Intel has been pushing the Ultrabook concept as the future of notebook computers, but manufacturers have been having difficulties bringing costs to the point where they can compete with the MacBook Air. Intel has been pushing for Ultrabook pricing to begin at under $1000, and while some models may reach that goal, manufacturers and Intel have been at odds over how to cut costs to reach that target.
Popular Stories
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the announcement of Apple's upcoming "Let loose" event, where the company is widely expected to announce new iPad models and accessories. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's event invite shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Apple CEO Tim...
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman outlined some of the new products he expects Apple to announce at its "Let Loose" event on May 7. First, Gurman now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro models will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M4 chip, rather than the M3 chip that debuted in the MacBook Pro and iMac six months ago. He said a ...
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Top Rated Comments
That's what these companies do now. They just look at Apple and make cheap knock-offs, and then wonder why nobody is impressed by their offerings. It's almost sad to watch. Some of these OEMs had really impressive products, but now they all seem like junk that cannot resonate or generate even the slightest excitement.
That image is incredible. The windows machines are so UGLY. That picture should send all of the PC guys back to the drawing board, and win a nice pat on the back for the design team at Apple.
If I wanted a Windows ultra book, I'd still buy the air, and just install Windows.