Tablet fever 'subsiding'
Wang's comments are something of a mixed message given the Acer boss lumped the super thin ultrabook category in with tablets as a category he described as a “fad”.
Wang claims the firm's own surveys had shown that consumers were drawn to technology that is not even out yet, although he took the opportunity to mention that Acer is to launch their own ultrabook in September.
DigiTimes reports that some players in the PC industry agree with Wang's prediction and point out that tablet PCs are mainly marketed for entertainment purposes, different from notebooks, which are also tools for work and learning.
Therefore, once the tablet PC market reaches saturation, consumers' motivation to replace tablet PCs will be a lot lower than for notebooks, causing tablet PC sales to stagnate once volumes reach a certain level.
Acer isn't the only one betting on Ultrabooks, writes Money Control.
Other PC-centric companies such as Asus, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP are all gearing up to launch their own ultrabooks in the last quarter of this year.
Wang also said he did not expect ultrabooks to rise to the top this year. He predicted that sales of ultrabooks among other notebooks would rise 25% to 35% next year. Intel has also predicted a similar number for the end of 2012.
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