Ultrabook: Intel renames the hybrid device again

Although Intel has an impressive roadmap for low power processors incorporating its new 3D transistor technology, actually getting its Atom range into tablets and smartphones is proving a long process. So the company is adopting a time honored approach when failing in a product segment - rechristen it. A couple of years ago the huge Computek show in Taiwan was full of chatter about Qualcomm's and Freescale's alternative take on the tablet, the 'smartbook'. This year, the show sees the announcement of the 'ultrabook', which follows a string of Intel attempts to name and define the product space between handsets and notebooks.

'Ultra-mobile PC' and other labels achieved none of the impact of the tablet, as epitomized by the iPad, but Intel still believes there is room for a highly mobile product that is smaller than a netbook, and has the battery life of a tablet, but with a keyboard. If this form factor gains traction, it will be a far more natural fit for Atom than the tablets, which have been dominated by ARM-based chips from firms like Nvidia.

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• The new ultrabooks will be less than an inch thick, offer several days of battery life on standby, start up in seconds, and be priced under $1,000, according to Intel's EVP Sean Maloney, who will launch the initiative in his keynote address at Computex - and is forging ties with the Taiwanese electronics ecosystem, as he takes on a new role as head of Intel China.
• Maloney will set an ambitious target of converting 40% of consumer laptop users to the new form factor by the end of 2012. He said in an interview before the start of the show that previous ultra-mobile PC designs had not performed well because they were overpriced and chips were insufficiently powerful (apparently forgetting the 2008 Computex, when netbooks were the most high profile category at the show, sparking a sales rush that was only slowed by the advent of the tablet).

"We want to find new ways to propel the PC forward," Maloney told Bloomberg. "With what has happened in the tablet space, there is a 'hurry-up' to the PC industry." However, Intel does expect to have Atom in 35 tablets by the end of the year, and has promised to demonstrate 10 of these at Computex.