HP’s new Ultrabook was designed with the MacBook in mind. A sleek, thin design and long battery life were included in the Ultrabook just because the MacBook Air was reportedly stepping up their game in these areas as well. Unfortunately, HP’s plan hasn’t gone the way they’d like it to go – Ultrabook sales are already dropping off significantly and “disappointing Intel”, while the MacBook Air continues to grow in popularity. Along these same lines, an IDC report indicated that for the seventh quarter in a row, the PC market has failed to grow.

“The first half [of 2012] is about 500,000 ultrabooks shipped worldwide. It’s nowhere near Intel’s initial hope,” Chou, an IDC analyst, told CNET News. “The volume isn’t there and it’s going to be way below what Intel [and HP] hoped for.” Intel, earlier this year, said they thought that the new Ultrabook could take up almost half of the portable computer market before the end of the year. Chou says that Ultrabooks may sell around a million units this year. IDC expects around 225 million laptop computers will ship this year alone, making a million units fairly minute in the grand scheme of things.

Apple’s MacBooks skyrocketed last quarter; around 2.8 million were shipped, up from 2.75 million in the same quarter of last year. “The MacBook Air is a good part of Apple’s business. It’s hard good growth,” said the IDC analyst.

Chou also explains why he thinks the Ultrabook has performed so poorly. “A lot more models have to hit that $700 spot and they need a more lightweight and faster responding OS like Windows 8,” he says. “They [Apple] really know how to magnify their strength. PCs typically out-spec them. But it’s really just saying ‘I have a bigger search engine’,” and that isn’t as popular as it used to be with laptop buyers.

Photo Credit: Apple.com

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