IDF 2012: Ultrabooks remain Intel's Hero Product

Despite a weaker than expected performance of Ultrabooks in the market, Intel continues to believe that Ultrabooks will drive much of its sales in the coming year. Of course, much of this optimism is off the back of Windows 8, with Intel really going all-out to completely redefine Ultrabooks with a whole host of feature additions and performance gains.

Speaking during the opening keynote, David Perlmutter, Intel Corporation's Chief Product Officer, said, "We believe Windows 8 on Intel architecture will deliver the best experience, performance and compatibility across computing platforms."

Ultrabooks remain Intel's Hero Product

Running full steam ahead with that belief, Intel has announced that more than 140 different Ultrabook designs are already in development on the Ivy Bridge platform and will be out by early 2013. Form factors are spread across a range of flexible options: convertibles, detachables, plain touch clamshells, among other innovative designs. Many of these new form-factor based Ultrabooks will also be available very soon, with more than 70 of them ready for the market by the time Windows 8 would hit the market.

Some of these innovative designs were seen at Computex 2012 and at IFA 2012, while others are totally new.

New Ultrabook form factors were everywhere

However, many of these machines will lack the enhancements that are due to be released in conjunction with Haswell, such as Intel HD graphics support, new instructions for faster encryption and performance, new hardware-based security features and low-power processor sub-states to enable longer battery life. The enhancements that Haswell brings to the fore are more than worth waiting for, and while it reinvigorates the Ultrabook and helps reclaim its position as Intel's flagship product, it could also have a short-term negative impact on existing Ivy Bridge Windows 8 machines.