This article is more than 1 year old

Acer bigwig sees gloomy future for Ultrabooks in Europe

These people just aren't ready to take a 13-incher

Acer has downgraded sales forecasts for Ultrabooks as the relatively hefty price tag and smaller screen size continues to limit adoption in Europe.

The PC maker had expected the super skinny platform to comprise between 25 and 35 per cent of total notebook sales globally by the end of this year.

"Overall the Ultrabook segment is developing much slower than projected by Intel and we have already adjusted our strategy on this in the last quarter," said Oliver Ahrens, Acer EMEA president.

The "price issue" is potentially the main sticking point for buyers, with the €900 to €1,100 price band accounting for roughly 0.4 per cent of the total available European market for laptop sales.

"As you imagine we cannot boost this to 30 per cent rapidly, we expect that by the end of this year Ultrabooks will be maybe 10 per cent of the market, maybe a bit more than 10 per cent," he said.

Gartner previously claimed PC vendors needed to hack about one-quarter from price before hard-pressed shoppers would be willing to cough for one.

Ahrens said another sticking point was the 13.3-inch form factor. "[This screen size] was never as popular in Europe as in Asia," he told The Channel. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like