ulrabooks
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Intel Ultrabooks to sell for under $1000, take a page from ASUS' design book?
Back at Computex, Intel whipped out its magic 8-ball to predict a "you may rely on it" 40 percent share for the upcoming Ultrabooks market. While we can neither confirm, nor deny the company's powers of retail clairvoyance, we can point you to a purported bill of materials that would usher its line in at a sub-$1000 price. The report from Digitimes doesn't lay out the specific assembly costs, but pegs the chipmaker's 18mm and 21mm thick laptops at $493 - $710 and $475 - $650, respectively. Intel is also reportedly meeting with manufacturers in Taipei next week to figure out a way to deliver on the budget-friendly goal, aimed at producing 11 - 13-inch models for the thinner entries and girthier 14 - 17-inch models. If you're wondering what sort of form factor the company's after, take a glance at ASUS' UX21 and UX31 ultrabooks -- supposed reference designs for the svelte, Ivy Bridge-powered computers. We hope that's the only bit of strategy Intel cops, otherwise we're all in for a disappointingly priced ultraslim future.
HP to ship first Ultrabooks ahead of ASUS?
Remember those Ultrabooks unveiled at Computex? ASUS had touted its UX21 to be one of the first available in September, but there's reason to believe that HP may beat it to the punch -- if you like salty punch, that is. According to DigiTimes, HP has at least two machines on the table offering Intel's latest Core i7 processors in 1.8GHz i7-2677M and 1.7 GHz i7-263M flavors. The report also suggests that Foxconn's the manufacturer and may already be shipping some rigs to la casa de HP. Lastly, although we haven't yet gotten definitive sizing on the UX21, DigiTimes mentions that ASUS is making 11.6-inch and 13-inch versions. Considering we're nearing mid-July, it can't be too long for some official word if any of this is true, just don't go sipping too much of that Kool-Aid -- okay?
