Intel Plans a New Future for Tablets Taking on Apple and Looking for 40% of All PCs to be Tablets

“TAIPEI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel unveiled a new category of laptops that it says will include the best features of tablets as the world’s top chipmaker struggles to find its footing in the exploding market for mobile gadgets.

Netbook pioneer Asustek showed its first new PC in Intel’s “Ultrabook” class, the UX series, on Monday at the Computex computer show in Taipei. Intel said models made by other manufacturers would go on sale by Christmas and cost under $1,000.

Ultrabooks will be svelte and lightweight but still pack high-performance processors. They should account for 40 percent of laptop sales to consumers by the end of next year, Tom Kilroy, a senior vice president at Intel, told Reuters in an interview in San Francisco.

“We’re shooting for ultra responsive. You’ll have always-on, always-connected, much more responsive devices, similar to what you would see with a tablet today such as an iPad,” he said.

In Taipei on Tuesday, Intel’s vice president Mooly Eden called the Ultrabook a “different category” from the tablet and notebook, hoping that it would appeal to a different category of consumers.

“There’ll be some confusion if you look at the fold factor; when you open it you’ll see a PC but if you’re on the go, just fold it and suddenly it’s a tablet. Is it a PC? Is it a tablet? I think it doesn’t matter,” Eden told a media conference.

Santa Clara, California-based Intel is eager to make laptops more attractive to consumers who are increasingly captivated by Apple’s iPad and other mobile gadgets.”

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