Said honestly, I never understood ultrabooks just by the name alone. Previously, “ultrabook” simply meant “top model of cetain series of laptop”. For example, Dell would release a line of Inspirons and they’d usually have three models, which were simply base, better and best. “Best” then changed to this thing called ultrabook; that’s how I see it.
Well, ultrabooks aren’t doing that well; they’re just not selling.
As to why they’re not selling, many are saying it’s because everyone wants tablets and super-duper smartphones now. I disagree with this and believe the reason ultrabooks just aren’t working with the market is because the price point is just too high.
The deal with the ultrabook is that it wasn’t something that started at a high price point and then fell gradually as all tech products do. Nope. Ultrabooks started at a high price and stayed there.
On the low end, the cheapest ultrabook is still $600. Come on… seriously? I can’t get a new ultrabook for $400 now? Nope. An ultrabook will still burn a 600-dollar hole in your wallet.
And no, it’s not worth it.
I can get a 15.6-inch screen new “non-ultrabook” laptop for under $350 easily with a 320GB HDD, 2.3GHz CPU and HD graphics. And the industry is telling me that the ultrabook which starts at almost double the price is worth the buy? I don’t think so.
This is not to say that the ultrabook is a bad computer. Not at all.
But it’s just not worth the price tag they’re selling them for, and that as far as I’m concerned is why they’re failing in the marketplace.
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I couldn’t agree more. The prices are way to high for the product and the money just isn’t worth it. Drop the price down to the $400 range like you said and I’m sure people would re-consider when researching their options.
There’s a world of difference between what the ultrabook was supposed to be, and what it ended up being for most manufacturers.
That being said, I think the market is just too saturated right now. The desktop PC is pretty much dead for home users. However, they still buy laptops, e-readers, tablets, and smartphones. In an economy that’s still down, there’s only so much money to go around. For most, ultrabooks just aren’t unique enough to be worth the investment.