Intel Bets 2012 on Ultrabooks

The first ultrabooks are out of the gate and it appears that Intel can breathe a sigh of relief. However, Intel will be making sure that the market development will stay on track and will be funding the segment accordingly.

ZoomSenior vice president Tom Kilroy told Forbes that ultrabooks will be at the center of the company's biggest marketing campaign in 2012. After ultrabooks were somewhat slow to gain traction, Intel announced in August that it would support innovation with $300 million the company would provide through its Intel capital VC arm. Kilroy did not say how much marketing money Intel will sink into ultrabooks next year.

Intel is depending on ultrabooks to become successful and to help pick up chip sales that netbooks are losing. So far, Intel isn't selling many chips into the tablet segment. However, even with a PC market that has slowed down dramatically, Intel knows that the PC market remains by far the more attractive opportunity for processor sales over the next few years. The best argument for developing the PC market is that Intel does not have to make any bets and decide which market forecast for tablets they trust: the PC market already exists and no bets have to be made.

If the ultrabook market takes off, it may be far more lucrative for Intel than selling lower-margin processors into the tablet segment in the near future.