An Ultrabook is not just about being "thin" thus even Apple had their Air models for years but simply due to their price (having a price tag under $1000 is among the main reasons) they weren't considered as Ultrabooks according to Intel's standards (they invented the term) until recently they introduced the Mac Book Air 11. Few months ago major PC manufactures such as Asus, MSI, Acer, etc released few products of their own but according to numbers... the "selling" ain't that impressive.
Although there could be many reasons but this is mainly due to the price vs usability (battery life, performance, etc) in my opinion. Why would anyone pay like $200-300 more for a thin and portable notebook when we have more powerful counterparts with prices starting around $650. They may weight slightly more but heck when considering that Ultrabooks has never ultra voltage processors which are not the most powerful ones & battery life not being super impressive I think it's pretty reasonable if you feel like you're wasting some money on them :).
Anyhow, the latest news is that, today HP has also decided to join the Ultrabook battle with the introduction of their Ultrabook called Folio 13 (prices start at $900!). In comparison with mots other models their Ultrabook is somewhat cheap + has some never hardware profile as well.
This reminds of the battle between Intel and AMD actually. It's true that Intel has a better technology touch but that's not the only reason why they're ahead of the game. In my humble experience on most occasions they just let to AMD have a bit of a head start that gives them the ideal opportunity to observe what people have to say and collect "practical" feedback (which is the one that really counts) and then thanks to that they re-engineer a product that's superior, on most occasions.
I'm not saying Folio 13 is such a product since I haven't seen it for real but when considering the price and some of the hardware, perhaps they may have done their "home work".
Let's have a look at some of the hardware details...
*. Core i5-2467M processor.
*. 4GB of DDR3 RAM.
*. 13.3 inch display with 1366 x 768 which in my opinion is best resolution for a 13 incher since unlike with Apple products where you have high pixel density which adds a bit of an eye strain.
*. Weights around 3.3 pounds (1.49 kg). It's slightly heavier than some other modes such as with Asus ones but I'm willing to vote for that extra weight since it should've helped to reduce some of that cost.
*. 6 cell battery (HP promises 9 hours of battery life, may slightly vary on actual conditions, not surprising for an Ultrabook anyway).
*. 128GB SSD.
*. For ports you'll get: HDMI, Ethernet, USB 2.0 and 3.0 and a memory card reader.
*. A backlit keyboard with HP multi gesture track-pad.
*. 18 mm thick!.
*. Intel HD Graphic 3000 (there goes your Gaming enthusiasm :D).
It was released for the first time yesterday in Australia and for the US fans according to HP it's gonna be available in December 7th. Anyway as said before, it's too early to say about its success but, $900 for an Ultrabook that has reasonable amount of power behind it is something that's a bit "rare" nonetheless.
You can read more about from this official HP Press release page and for US users, it's available through this HP Folio page (other than a basic introduction, there ain't much in it yet).
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