Intel to power as many as 40 Windows 8 ultrabooks in Q4 starting as low as $699

The Intel’s Ultrabook Symposium kicks off tomorrow in Taipei and there the industry players will gather to discuss the latest developments of this new product category.  This is the second annual meeting, which is actually held simultaneously in two locations the second being Shenzhen because of the large presence of passive component makers.  One of the goals of the Symposium is to promote new technology, exchange ideas and incorporate them into new products.

We had a chance to meet with Navin Shenoy Vice President of Intel Architecture Group and General Manager of Mobile Client Platform before the event kicked off to catch a glimpse of what is going on at this NDA laden event.

140 UltraBook Designs – 35 Currently on the Market

Shenoy confirmed that the new category has achieved an 140 Ultrabook design with only 35 being reaching the public eye.  Our first question was around sales figures, there is no shortage of speculation that the product category hasn’t been performing.  Shenoy was quick to point out that the first real wave of Ultrabooks only appeared with Ivy Bridge in June, the early Sandy Bridge models that hit the street were only a precursor to the main event.  This is of course being August’s “Back to School” sales and the holiday shopping period that follows.

Ultrabooks from $ 699

We have already started seeing Ultrabooks hit the $699 price range with the Sandy Bridge edition of the Dell Inspiron 14z, but next month we will start to see price reductions across the board for Ultrabooks in the sub $700 price range.

40 Windows 8 Ultrabooks with Touch launching in Q4

Touch is the new black! It is the most logical move for Intel and Microsoft and it’s been a long time coming.  By the end of the year we can expect 40 Ultrabooks with touch screens, however, how well they are accepted is going to depend on the acceptance of Windows 8.

The 4th Generation Processors will bring SOC for PC

Ivy Bridge has just hit the streets but Intel is already full steam ahead with their next generation processor, Haswell. The 22nm process will be the first SoC for PC, Shenoy pointed out that in idle the processor will consumer 20 times less power than Ivy Bridge.  Haswell will not be an incremental performance gain, it will be huge step forward.

What about the Atom processor and Netbooks?

Since the name of the site is Netbook News, we had to ask what about Atom and the Netbook?  The response was expected, Atom is headed for Tablets, Smartphones and of course the Netbook. Atom has a much needed place in Intel’s portfolio offering the lowest power consumption and price.

The Importance of Hybrids and Convertibles

One of the main topics at the Symposium will be hybrids and convertible Ultrabooks.  This product category is very important not only to Intel but to Microsoft as well. By the end of the year we will have a dozen convertibles on the market which we will see launch with Windows 8.

Something that we can look forward to with the next wave of Ultrabooks are ones explicitly focused on business. Shenoy pointed out that we have yet to see any Business Ultrabooks hit the street and that we can expect to see Lenovo, HP & Dell with offerings in the near future.

Via: NetBookNews