Analyst says Surface could hurt Ultrabook, Windows 8 tablets
Taiwanese analyst outfit Trendforce thinks Microsoft’s forthcoming Surface devices will cannibalise the market for ultrabooks, put price pressure on Android tablets and confuse consumers.
The analysts’ WitsView service recently published a note in which research director Eric Chiou says that Surface devices’ 32GB of storage is a higher spec than that on most ten-inch Android tablets, justifying a higher price of US$599.
At that price Chiou feels Surface will “inevitably cannibalize ultrabook sales” and goes on to say that “Microsoft may not be pleased to see a competition between its own products.” Consumers may also be confused by the overlapping prices. Read more...
Sprint to sell IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook for $800
Sprint has become the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer an ultrabook, which is being sold with a 3G/4G mobile hotspot device at no added cost.
Sprint and Lenovo announced the 13.3-in. IdeaPad U310 ultrabook with a hotspot device for $799.99, subject to a two-year Sprint mobile broadband service agreement, the companies said. Three months of broadband service will be available for free.
The hotspot is either a MiFi 3G/4G mobile hotspot by Novatel Wireless or the Overdrive Pro 3G/4G mobile hotspot by Sierra Wireless. Data plans for the hotspot start at $35 a month for 3GB, or $50 for 6GB. Read more...
A closer look at Lenovo’s enterprise and hybrid ultrabooks
Cashing in on the ultrabook excitement at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Lenovo has rolled out four of its own slimmed-down models, including one geared specifically for the enterprise.
Lenovo, which released its first ultrabook -- the U300S -- last October, worked on filling out its ultrabook offerings here at CES this week.
On Monday, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO, unveiled the IdeaPad Yoga, the company's hybrid ultrabook that can be flipped around to look like a tablet computer. Lenovo followed that news by releasing three more ultrabooks: the IdeaPad U310, a 13-in. ultrabook, the IdeaPad U410, a 14-in machine, and for enterprises, the ThinkPad T430U. Read more...
Windows ultrabooks: What’s Apple response?
With a glut of "ultrabook" announcements slated at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Apple watchers have one question: How will the Cupertino, Calif. company respond?
Backed by Intel, the big PC manufacturers are expected to launch or show ultrabooks, the chipmaker's term for thin, lightweight notebooks that rely on solid-state storage (SSD) in lieu of a traditional platter-based hard disk drive and forgo an optical drive, at CES this week.
According to Intel, more than 75 different ultrabooks will appear during 2012.
But as two analysts who cover Apple noted today, the category isn't new. In fact, Apple was the company that kicked it off.
"They started the ultrabook trend four years ago with the MacBook Air," noted Brian Marshall, an analyst with International Strategy & Investment Group (ISI ), in an interview Monday. Read more...
Acer to offer free cloud service, shows super-slim ultrabook
Acer kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday by previewing a free cloud service for storing images and other documents online, and showing a novel ultrabook that hides its I/O ports in a hidden pop-up section at the back.
The cloud service, called AcerCloud, will allow people to upload all their images, video, and documents to an online service hosted by Acer, and access them over the Web from any PC, mobile phone, or tablet running Windows or Android. That includes devices from other vendors.
The service will come free with all new consumer PCs from Acer and include "unlimited" storage, Acer officials said. It will be rolled out in North America and Greater China in the second quarter, and worldwide by the end of the year.
Acer has struggled this year with declining PC sales, and it hopes its emphasis on ultrabooks and the cloud service will help revive its fortunes. The AcerCloud will be "a strategic differentiator for Acer in the long term," Acer Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang said at the press event Read more...
Lenovo says new ‘Ultrabook’ thinner than MacBook Air
Lenovo has jumped on Intel's "Ultrabook" bandwagon, announcing a new IdeaPad on Thursday that the company said is thinner than Apple's celebrated MacBook Air.
The IdeaPad U300S has a 13.3-inch display and is the slimmest laptop on the market, said Michael Littler, marketing lead at Lenovo's product group consumer marketing. The U300S is 0.59 inches thick (1.49 centimeters) and weighs 2.2 pounds (0.99 kilograms), Lenovo said. The 13-inch MacBook Air is 0.68 inches thick and weighs 2.96 pounds.
The U300S comes with a choice of low-power Intel processors. It provides up to eight hours of battery life during active use and 30 hours on standby. The starting price is $1,200, and the laptop will start to ship in mid-October, with worldwide availability set for November, Lenovo said. Read more...