- Error
Demand undermined by high prices
Asus and Acer pioneered Intel’s ultrabook concept earlier this year, but it now seems they are being forced to cut orders due to low demand.
According to Digitimes, the companies had originally ordered between 250,000 and 300,000 units from suppliers, but the order was cut to 150,000 to 180,000 ultrabooks by the end of the year. Just a month after the launch, ultrabooks seem to have ran into serious difficulties, mainly due to the relatively high price.
Most Asus Zenbook and Acer S3 ultrabook SKUs cost well north of $999 and high-end variants can set you back more than $1,600. This puts them squarely in MacBook Air territory in terms of pricing and consumers seem rather unimpressed.
Notebook vendors hope Windows 8 will boost sales, but the new OS will be introduced next October, almost a year from now. Until then, they will obviously have a pretty tough time finding plenty of customers for ultrabooks.
More here.
Latest from