Acer Forecasts Big Cuts on Ultrabook Prices in Coming Years

Taipei, Dec. 9, 2011 CENS)--Despite high unit prices seeming to compromise ultrabook laptop's marketability in the short term, Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc., one of the world's top five PC vendors by market share now, has forecast big price cuts to be seen in 2012 through 2013, when an ultrabook will likely retail for only US$499 and then better compete against tablet PCs, especially Apple Inc.'s iPad.

In an interview with a foreign new agency, Wong commented that ultrabook prices will start to spiral downward in the second quarter of 2012, when most of the devices will be built with Intel's newest processor, Ivy Bridge, which is developed specifically for ultrabook laptops and scheduled for launch early in the year.

He opines that unit prices of mainstream models are very likely to slide to between US$799 and US$899 in 2012 from the current level of over US$1,000, and will hopefully hit around US$499 in 2013.

Endorsed by Intel, ultrabook is a next-generation laptop model featuring lighter weight, thinner exterior design, longer battery service life and better hardware performance than conventional notebook PCs, regarded by global PC vendors as the ace in the hole to fight back Apple.

For the moment, most of unveiled and launched ultrabooks are built with high-end hardware, including metal cases, SSDs (solid state drives) and lithium polymer batteries, thus selling for higher prices than traditional notebook PCs. But, to offer more consumer-friendly prices, institutional investors said, ultrabook suppliers will have to phase out some of these components to reduce hardware costs in the future.

Although ultrabooks will still need time to be tested by the market, Wong remains optimistic about prospects of the product, expecting ultrabooks to contribute 25-30% to his company's overall laptop shipment in 2012. For the fourth quarter of 2011, the company aims to ship between 250,000 and 300,000 ultrabooks.

Noteworthy is DRAMeXchange, a Taiwan-based market researcher, has also forecast that ultrabooks along with the launch of Windows 8 will help to boost the growth of global laptop shipment to 8.8% in 2012 from an estimate of only 1% seen in 2011.