While
vendors have responded to Apple’s launch of the iPad with an array of competing
products, the industry has been slow to respond to 2008’s Macbook Air. Vendors
only launched the first Ultrabooks — a new category in mobile computing driven
by the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, Intel — in late 2011.
While the
market is bursting with new products post-CES, a number of challenges remain
for the industry. As we have seen in the tablet market, without products which
are significantly differentiated from those of Apple in terms of price and
features, gaining traction for its competitors is a difficult value
proposition. Furthermore, Intel’s Ultrabook specs bring their own challenges.
Flash-based
storage — behind many of the enhancements in Ultrabooks — provides superior
performance, which comes at a price, but vendors will need to augment solid
state drives with hard disk drives or cloud storage in the long term.
“While
Intel’s control of the brand ensures that Ultrabooks stand out from traditional
notebooks, vendors face a balancing act in terms of product strategy. Meeting
Intel’s specification secures brand status and funding, but the step-change
from notebooks means many of today’s Ultrabooks are too expensive for many
consumers,” said report author Daniel Ashdown of Juniper Research
Meanwhile,
Apple is leading the worldwide media tablet shipments in Q3 2011. The company
shipped 11.1 million units in Q3 2011, up from 9.3 million units in Q2 2011.
Apple tablet market share reduced to 61.5% in Q3 2011 from
63.3% in Q2
Apple’s larger portfolio of tablet-specific apps,
upcoming iPad versions, and growing physical store presence in key emerging
markets like Asia/Pacific will help maintain its global leadership. However, an
improving Android OS experience and lower competitor pricing in an environment
with worldwide economic concerns should help Android to increase its market
share.
