@Casey Yes. The article even said that it's up to Acer's original expectations.
Intel made them ship more, because Intel and Microsoft make a lot of ridiculously bad decisions and predictions. Intel expected to take over the market with ultrabooks and yet their pricing is ridiculously high.
Microsoft hopes to take over the market with Windows 8, which is supposed to increse the demand for new PCs yet for all that we know now:
- it's a piece of shit (judging by the beta)
- Windows 7 is a great product that few will want to have replaced, especially since I doubt that Windows 8 will be as good
- Windows 7 still feels pretty much new, it's not outdated at all and it's a great operating system with no bigger flaws, so Windows 8 would have to beat that by creating an equally awesome system with awesome, innovative functionality and they are aware of that - the problem is that their "innovations" really REALLY suck big time and they will only fuck up their Windows line if they release anything like the available beta.
@ Coonie - Because to beat a product you need a better product or better marketing. Currently available ultrabooks aren't better and are almost as expensive. There's no point buying them, it's better to buy a slightly more expensive but better and after all "real deal" product. They would need to cost 50-60% of what they are offered for right now to sell. And a different design - Toshiba knew this with their ultrabooks, unfortunately they'll be even more expensive.
Airs are overpriced but they were new and stylish and offered improved performance over netbooks while being small and lightweight, ultrabooks are even more overpriced for what they offer at the moment and they really feel like rip-offs so people needing that thing would rather buy an Air simply because it's better and costs about as much, and for that price they wouldn't want to be seen with something that looks like Air but isn't one.
I mean - there's almost no point in buying them over netbooks and they cost 3-4 times as much.
So first ultrabooks are like first Android tablets - they aren't quite on par with what 'inspired' them. But they carry potential - like Samsung's Tab p1000 which wasn't a match against the Ipad and was almost as expensive.
Funny thing is that Macbook air is not Apple's design. It's Intel's design - in reality it was their first ultrabook.
Now Intel wants to make manufacturers compete with their own product using the same product but with a different brand on casing. A double-win for Intel and I can see why they want to encourage manufacturers to do their best selling them. And they won't lower the price because there's no point, there's no real competition. Macbooks and ultrabooks are 90% Intel. They even pack Intel's own SSD drives for a lot of them.