Ultrabook price unlikely to achieve sweet spot until 2013

Despite that notebook vendors all understand that price is the key to significantly drive demand for ultrabooks, especially when approaching to the sweet spot at about US$599-699, considering their profitability, the vendors believe ultrabook ASPs are unlikely reach the sweet spot until 2013, according to sources from notebook vendors.

Sources from the supply chain also pointed out that the production cost of ultrabooks is still rather high, especially the cost of SSDs, which is 10-fold higher than a traditional hard drive, while custom-made ultra-thin panels and components also play large parts in the overall cost for the vendors. However, as vendors work on reducing their costs, ultrabooks' ASPs have a chance to reach US$799 in the second quarter.

Although many vendors are already set to release ultrabook models at US$799 in the second quarter, their profitability will be significantly pressed and management between pushing shipment volume and profitability will become an important task for each vendor.