Intel Corp. is leading the charge to make Windows-based notebooks lighter, more portable, and more responsive with its standards-protected Ultrabook brand.
Designed to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air and iPad, the devices have already begun to trickle onto the market from familiar PC makers. Supporting consumer-winning features like instant-on and fast-access solid state dicks (SSD), Intel will be imposing a requirement on its manufacturers who make notebooks using the “ultrabook” name in their product title. All Ultrabooks will support Intel’s Core series of chips, for example.
At Microsoft’s Build conference, Intel demonstrated an ultrabook running the Windows 8 developer preview, and says it would like to see the notebooks become the flagship device for Windows 8. You can bet that will mean that Ultrabooks coming out next year will also support a touch screen.
A demo of some early Ultrabooks models.