Demand for thin and light CULV-based notebooks seems to be quite a bit weaker than expected. According to Digitimes, notebook makers are not pleased with demand, and they believe consumers are taking a "wait and see" attitude, and waiting for tier one vendors to enter the market.

Few notebook makers have launched thin and light notebooks based on Intel's CULV platform, most notably Acer, MSI and Asus, but HP, Dell, Lenovo and other big players are still on the sidelines. Some punters believe consumers are waiting for Windows 7. Although most vendors are now offering a free upgrade to Win 7 once it comes out, buyers who don't want to mess around could wait for a few more months.

Another issue is performance, as people are basically being asked to upgrade their old notebooks for fresh designs which don't offer a performance increase. CULV-books aren't supposed to be secondary PCs like netbooks, and they are expected to cope with most everyday tasks. Most CULV-books on the market are based on Intel's Core 2 Solo SU3500. Dual-core SU9400 versions are harder to find, and significantly pricier, while cheap Celeron 723 CPUs are used in just a few designs. Intel will offer a bit more low end choice in late September, when it starts shipping Celeron 743 and SU2700 CPUs, and a faster dual-core should follow soon.

We like the thin and light concept, and we believe it will take off, especially once the likes of HP, Dell and Lenovo hop on board, and when more powerful designs with discrete graphics or Nvidia's ION chipset start shipping.

More here.