Ultrabook is a marketing term, originated and trademarked by
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
, for a category of high-end
laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
computers.
They were originally marketed as featuring ultra thin form factor and light weight design without compromising battery life or performance, and when the term was originated they generally were enough smaller than average laptop models to qualify as
subnotebooks.
As ultrabook features became more mainstream in the mid-late 2010s, explicitly branding laptop models as ultrabooks became much less frequent. As of 2021, while Intel maintains the Ultrabook trademark, it is rarely used for new models and has been superseded in Intel's own marketing by the Intel Evo branding.
History
In 2011, Intel Capital press officer Jordan Balk Schaer announced a new fund to support startups working on technologies in line with the company's concept for next generation notebooks.
[.] The company set aside a million fund to be spent over the next three to four years in areas related to Ultrabooks.
[ Intel announced the Ultrabook concept at ]Computex
COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world.
The last COMPUTEX wa ...
in 2011. The Ultrabook would be a thin (less than 0.8 inches thick[.]) notebook that utilized Intel processors, and would emphasize portability and a longer battery life than other laptops[ By this marketing initiative and an associated million fund, Intel hoped to influence the slumping PC market against rising competition from ]smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s[.] and tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
s, which are typically powered by competing ARM
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...
-based processors.
Ultrabooks competed against other subnotebooks, including Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
’s MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is a line of ultrabook computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc. It consists of a full-size keyboard, a machined aluminum case, and, in the more modern versions, a thin light structure. The Air was originally positioned ...
, which has similar form specifications and was powered until 2020 by Intel CPUs, but was not advertised under the Ultrabook brand.
At the Intel Developer Forum
The Intel Developer Forum (IDF) was a biannual gathering of technologists to discuss Intel products and products based on Intel products. The first IDF was held in 1997.
To emphasize the importance of China, the Spring 2007 IDF was held in Beiji ...
in 2011, four Taiwan ODMs showed prototype Ultrabooks that used Intel's Ivy Bridge chips. Intel plans to reduce power consumption of its chips for Ultrabooks, like Ivy Bridge processors, which will feature 17 W default thermal design power.
At a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
, an Intel manager stated that market analysis revealed that screen size motivated some of the reluctance to switch to 13" Ultrabooks. As a result, Intel planned to ensure, through cooperation with manufacturers, a 14 or 15-inch screen on 50% of the 75 Ultrabook models that would likely come to market in 2012.[.]
IHS iSuppli had originally forecast that 22 million Ultrabooks would be shipped by the end of 2012, and 61 million would be shipped in 2013. By October 2012, IHS had revised its projections down significantly, to 10 million units sold in 2012 and 44 million for 2013. Most Ultrabooks were too expensive for wide adoption. In addition Intel's constant changing of Ultrabook specifications caused confusion among consumers; and this was compounded by OEMs that released slim/"sleek" or "Sleekbook" laptops (e.g. Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
Pavilion TouchSmart
HP TouchSmart is a series of tablet PC laptops and touchscreen all-in-one desktop computers designed by HP. It features various Intel or AMD processors and runs Windows Vista or Windows 7 as standard.
HP TouchSmart All-in-One
Consumer versio ...
15z-b000 Sleekbook, Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
Ativ Book 9 Lite) that are cheaper AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
-powered variants of their more expensive Intel-equipped Ultrabooks. Overall there was a shift in the market away from PCs as a whole (including Ultrabooks) and towards smartphones and tablet computers as the personal computing devices of choice.[.]
Intel banked on the release of Windows 8
Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...
as well as new form factors, such as "convertible" laptops with touchscreens and tablets with keyboard docks ("detachable"), and features (accelerometers and gyroscopes for touchscreens, hand-gesture recognition) to build demand for Ultrabooks.[ With the third generation Ultrabook specification, introduced in June 2013 alongside its new Haswell processor architecture, Intel also added the requirement for all future Ultrabooks to include touchscreens. The requirement, grounded in user experience research,] was intended to prevent "game-playing" and market confusion from OEMs, who had offered low-end products with touchscreens but not Ultrabooks.
Specifications
Intel required that manufacturers meet certain specifications to market a laptop as an Ultrabook. These requirements changed with each release of Intel's Centrino mobile platform.
List of models
References
External links
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{{Intel technology
American inventions
Intel products
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