Ever since Intel announced the Ultrabook category the feeling has been that it has been created with the Apple MacBook Air in mind. Such is Apple's inability to get a product wrong these days that it has been gaining PC share rapidly, with the MacBook Air leading the charge.
This is OK for Intel - which provides the CPUs for Apple PCs - but not such great news for the Wintel ecosystem, which Intel needs to ensure stays healthy too. So Intel is throwing both marketing development funds and outright investment at the Ultrabook category, which it's hoping will account for half of all notebook sales before long.
It's hard to see how that target is attainable, however, if their price positions them as a premium product. According to the FT, ASUS plans to launch five to seven Ultrabooks, but start their pricing at $800. That puts them very much in the premium category and confirms that the MacBook Air, which starts at a grand (US) is the main competitive target.
In the FT interview ASUS boss Jerry Chen talks about technical problems in making such a thin-and-light notebook at lower price points, but he could well be alluding to a general hope that Intel will do even more, such as making the chips cheaper, to help its OEM partners out. Another moan was about the component supply-chain, which could well be another plea for Intel to help level the playing field with Apple.
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