Some Ultra Disappointments for Computer Makers

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, July 16, 2012

Some Ultra Disappointments for Computer Makers

By NICK WINGFIELD and QUENTIN HARDY

The numbers are in from the PC industry's main scorekeepers -- the research firms IDC and Gartner -- and it looks as if one of the great growth hopes for the industry, ultrabooks, again failed to deliver.

On Wednesday evening, both IDC and Gartner reported that worldwide PC shipments fell 0.1 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, a poor showing for an industry that has been searching for a growth stimulant. As in the past, there are a bunch of factors accounting for the stagnation of the PC business, including consumers who seem far more enamored with getting the latest smartphones and iPads than they are with buying PCs.

Both Gartner and IDC singled out the thin laptop category known as ultrabooks for failing to lift the business. These devices were the PC industry's answer to Apple's MacBook Air, the superslim aluminum notebook that has been a strong seller. Intel, the chip maker whose products power most Windows PCs, plowed a fortune into the development of technologies useful for ultrabooks to encourage its PC customers to make more of the computers.

PC companies then did so, turning out a wide variety of Windows-based ultrabooks with thin cases and shiny metallic shells. But the public hasn't warmed to the devices yet, in part because they remain expensive.