Asus: Ultrabooks and tablets are in parallel markets

While Acer is hoping that the advent of Ultrabooks will take some thunder away from tablets, Asus is actually thinking otherwise.

According to DigiTimes, Asus CEO Jerry Shen sees the Ultrabook and tablet markets as parallel segments, meaning sales from one side will not adversely affect the other. The comment completely contrasts predictions from Acer, as the Taiwanese manufacturer firmly believes that the thin style, increased portability and better productivity offered by Ultrabooks will sway potential tablet consumers to the ultraportables instead.

Unfortunately, Asus did not provide any reasons as to why the two markets are more isolated than integrated. We imagine that the large price differences could be a major contributing factor, especially when tablets continue to drop in prices while Ultrabooks are still struggling to make a profit even at the $1000 price point.

Currently, Asus is set to release the UX21, the company’s first Ultrabook, around the world before the end of the year. Models are already available in France starting at 999 Euros ($1345) while a U.S. launch is scheduled for next week.

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