The brand ranking in the notebook segment may undergo a major shift in the second quarter of 2012 when Intel officially releases its Ivy Bridge CPUs and branded notebook vendors begin volume shipments of their second-generation ultrabook models, according to industry sources.

A number of vendors including Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba have revealed that they will showcase their next-generation ultrabooks at the CES trade show, and market watchers believe that many mainstream ultrabook models are likely to be priced below US$1,000.

Lenovo has unveiled it first Ivy Bridge-based ultrabook, a 14-inch model in its ThinPad lineup, which will be set at US$849, targeting the mobile business sector, the sources indicated, but added that the model may not be available until the third quarter of 2012.

Being the first vendor to bring out ultrabooks, the next-generation ultrabooks unveiled by Acer at the CES will be thinner that its last-generation models, said the sources. Previous reports also indicated that Acer will launch a 15-inch ultrabook for US$699.

While Toshiba is going to showcase a 13.3-inch ultrabook at CES, LG Electronics is likely to make public two models, the Z330 and Z430.

Having just released their first generation ultrabooks in December 2011, both Samsung Electronics and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are also likely to release information about new generation ultrabooks at the trade fair such as details of HP's Envy 14 Spectre, noted the sources.

However, since Apple will also employ Ivy Bridge CPUs for its MacBook Air, non-Apple vendors are expected to price their comparable models US$50-100 below those set for the MacBook Air lineup, or to add more functionalities, in order to win in the market, commented the sources. 

Source:digitimes