Acer boss T.J. Wang has said that ultrabook prices will fall next year, fueling demand and making them a key driver in the PC industry.

Wang told DigiTimes that his outfit is betting the farm on the Intel-backed ultrabook concept. While Wang thinks that Apple, Google and Wintel will be the primary PC platforms in 2012 with Wintel being the leader. He said that within the next two years, Apple’s influence will fade while Wintel’s will grow, due in large part to the rise of ultrabooks, super-thin and light notebooks with features found on tablets, including instant-on and always-connected capabilities and long battery life.

Wang said that at $700 ultrabooks will wipe the floor with Apple’s MacBook Pro thin notebook and tablets. Next year Intel is readying the release next year of its 22-nanometer “Ivy Bridge” chips, which promise greater performance and energy efficiency over the Sandy Bridge offerings. They also will feature Intel’s new 3D Tri-Gate transistor architecture to help drive down power consumption. All up this will make ultrabooks something very very cool, Wang said.

However, bear in mind that cheap ultrabooks, Ivy Bridge ULV parts and Windows 8 are still months away.