Intel reportedly paying big bucks to manufacturers for releasing Ultrabooks

When Intel coined the term “Ultrabook” at Computex 2011, we weren’t exactly sure how many manufacturers would jump into the idea. A couple of big name computer makers have already announced ultrabooks, such as Asus and Acer, but the moniker doesn’t seem to be resonating with other manufacturers as of yet.

Now, a recent report from DigiTimes is saying that Intel is offering strong financial incentives for manufacturers to develop ultrabooks. The source claims Intel is “providing a significant budget to support all partners launching Ultrabooks” and is investing heavily on necessary resources to make the ultrabook concept more lucrative for notebook builders.

Currently, the ultrabook is defined as being under 0.8-inches thick with Intel processors and a price range below $1000. Unfortunately, at least according to DigiTimes, notebook vendors are not sold on the idea and remain conservative on ultrabook development. This may be due to concerns from notebook vendors about the viability of offering such high end specs for a market price below $1000. Most manufacturers are rumored to be waiting on the sales performance of the upcoming Asus UX21 ultrabook before committing to ultrabook development.

Intel has had a similar ultrabook concept back in 2009 called the Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) lineup that did not take off as well as Intel had hoped. The chipmaker still has high hopes for ultrabooks, however, and is aiming for 40% of the consumer notebook market by the end of 2012. The UX21 may have to make a big bang at release this September for the sake of the future of Intel ultrabooks.

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