Sony does not seem to be interested in Ultrabooks right now
Soon after Intel has announced the Ultrabooks, a lot of manufacturers in the notebook market seem to be attracted by the news and declared to participate in the Ultrabook revolution. Companies like Acer, and Asus have already registered their names in the list of the manufacturers building their own Ultrabook.
But recently Sony has stated that they don’t have any plans for producing an Ultrabook of their own anytime soon, though this comment includes the possibility to release the same in the future. There was no explanation by Sony for its decision, but they might be concerned about facts like the high production cost as well as low profit margin as Intel has decided to sell them at a price less than $1000 US.
One more reason to be added is the latest release of the Z - series ultraportable VAIO, which also features an ultra-thin design and high performance and costs a bit less than $2700, which is far more expensive than Ultrabook models.
Notebook manufacturers are actually complaining to Intel about the high cost of production of these devices and if the price is kept below $1000 then the profit made comes out to be very minimal. The guidelines for the device require manufacturers to use a unibody design for the chassis, built in high density Li-polymer batteries to reduce the weight as well as size. Some of the components are also soldered directly on the system mainboard, for which companies had to change some of their existing processes, further increasing the cost price of the device.
The high price of solid state drives (SSD) and ULV processors also contributes to the high production cost of the Ultrabooks. These conditions are really making it a tough, for the manufacturers to price it under $1000. In fact we have seen only the basic variants just under $1000 till now. Let’s wait and watch how they are priced when they're mass released in the market which can be within the next two quarters, as Asus is planning to release one such ultra-thin laptop.