Imagine this: a laptop that is more durable than traditional models while also being lighter and thinner. On the surface it sounds like a concept that consumers would latch onto. Yet as Rich wrote last month, Ultrabooks haven’t caught on. Ultrabook shipments will likely reach just half of the 2012 estimate, and the 2013 estimates have already been cut. It’s not a great time to be a computer manufacturer that sunk considerable money into the devices.
Still, the concept is sound. So why haven’t these light, thin, durable laptops captured the attention of the mass market? There are a few reasons for this. Thankfully, manufacturers can overcome most of them.
1. Price
Rich mentioned this in his original article, so there is no reason to belabor the point. With an entry level price of $600, ultrabooks do not come cheap. The loaded, business-standard models cost even more than that, usually over $1,000. At the same time, “normal” laptops continue to fall in price. You can get a standard laptop with the same features as an ultrabook for hundreds of dollars less. Faced with two products that are similar in nature, most consumers will pick the cheaper one if the difference is so steep.
Manufacturers might have good reason to justify these high prices. After all, ultrabooks do contain expensive parts such as solid state hard drives. But consumers aren’t quite understanding of these aspects. They care about the bottom line, so when they see similar products with a great price difference, there is little that will convince them to go with the more expensive model.
2. Marketing
To be clear, the term Ultrabook, as we’re employing it, refers to PCs typically running Windows software. Yet Apple beat ultrabooks to the market by a heavy margin when, all the way back in 2008, it released the MacBook Air. The Air did have many issues at first, but within a few years Apple had worked out the kinks. Despite the overall disappointment in ultrabook sales, the MacBook Air continues to sell well. The difference isn’t with the product performances, but of how the products are presented.
Apple has always run top notch marketing campaigns. They showed consumers how the MacBook Air fits their needs and fulfills their desires, and so people bought them. Companies like Dell, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard have yet to convince consumers of the same. They have a long road ahead of them — no one markets quite like Apple. But they certainly can take more care to properly market their products.
3. Traditional specs
If you go take a look at the specs Lenovo’s 14 inch Ultrabooks, you’ll something odd. The processors aren’t quite the speed you see from traditional laptops. They clock in at 1.5 to 1.8 GHz, while traditional laptops are well over 2 GHz. In fact, a MacBook I bought in 2009 has a 2.23GHz processor, far faster than these Ultrabooks. What gives? Doesn’t this mean that they’re slower than a three-year-old laptop?
Unfortunately, the mass market understands computer speed in terms of clock speed. When they see one devices with a 1.5GHz processor and another with a 2.2GHz, they automatically think that the 2.2GHz is faster. This is understandable; consumers can’t be expected to understand all aspects of computers. But this plays against ultrabooks. They often run more efficient processors that can run tasks faster, despite the lower processor speed. Combined with solid state drives, which run much faster than magnetic hard drives, ultrabooks can be faster than traditional laptops. But it’s tough to convey that to consumers.
4. The name itself
What, exactly, does the term ultrabook mean? As Rich noted, the term previously meant “top model of certain series of laptop.” But now it has come to mean something different. It means a new line of products entirely. Yet most consumers haven’t become privy to this recent change in terminology. Even worse, less computer savvy consumers might have never heard the term before. They have no idea what an ultrabook is. When you combine that with the poor marketing efforts, you have a tough sell.
Additionally — and this is just one man’s opinion — the term “ultrabook” isn’t the strongest name for this type of laptop. When people see an ultrabook, they think “laptop.” It looks like a laptop, is portable like a laptop, has a hinge like a laptop. To them, it is a laptop. The term ultrabook doesn’t provide any real imagery to help them discern the difference. In fact, when combined with the higher price, the name makes the product seem like a top of the line device that most consumers simply do not need.
5. Lack of touchscreen
While ultrabooks haven’t sold, tablets have sold in droves. People seemingly love them. There are many good reasons for this, but chief among them are portability and the touchscreen. Ultrabooks have the first aspect. They are far more portable than traditional laptops, since they are lighter and thinner. But most ultrabooks do not contain touchscreens. Consumers might be more willing to consider them if they are more of a hybrid between laptops and tablets, rather than just being smaller laptops.
There are, to be sure, good reasons why ultrabooks do not have touchscreens. Again, since they typically run Windows software, there are compatibility issues. Yet it behooves manufacturers to work to create a solution. Consumers clearly want touchscreen devices. They are intuitive, and they are fun. If manufacturers want to sell more ultrabooks, they will likely have to find way to make touchscreens work. On this point the market has spoken loudly and clearly.
The market is down on ultrabooks at the moment, but it doesn’t have to remain that way. Manufacturers of ultrabooks have many avenues to increase sales. They will take considerable effort, of course, but they’re within the realm of possibility. If we see improvements in any two of the five items listed above, we could yet see ultrabook sales improve.
Joe Pawlikowski has written about technology, mobile technology specifically, for the last five and a half years. He keeps a personal blog at JoePawl.com .
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Forgot a more important thing than just name. Crampy keyboards with narrow or half-width arrow keys. Imagine writing and filling 100 rows of formulas in Excel. With those arrow keys, too hard.
You know what I think when I hear ultrabook. A thin Laptop. Cause that’s all I usually see the commercials use.
The price is definitely not right, especially in today’s economic climate.