Ultrabooks : are they any different than the traditional laptop?

The biggest problems with laptops are :

• Battery life - ie. 2 hours isn't enough for a train ride
• Weight : a textbook would weight around 4 pounds, a 15" machine weighs 6 lbs
• Thickness  - a piece of paper is less than a millimeter where as a laptop can be up 28 mm

Regarding the coverage of the new ultrabooks on the market, I have a hard time seeing how they will change the way computers are used. Neither of my laptops have a webcam. Nor do I think I should need to use one. Regarding weight, or battery life, it is extremely rare that I do not have have an outlet when I will sit at a table in a restaurant or in an office. Even if you are doing work in a camp on a vehicle there is always access to power.

The dimensions are another issue. I can understand that you do not want your backpack to weigh 60 lbs. However, the difference between 3 to 6 lbs could be a meal for some people, and the more often that your carry weight around, the more you will be accustomed to it. There is no need to have machines that are very thick as we have seen the dimensions of motherboards not having changed much over time. In fact, early laptop would have been much thinner if it were not for the battery cells, optical drives and floppy drives!

I have expressed many times over that the usability or functionality of computers have not changed considerably in the past ten years.  Books have been written on paper and video conferencing existed in the 90s. Have toasters evolved much in the past 50 years? Although it is nice to watch Youtube in 720p, bandwidth is still a problem. Some people who are not technically inclined fail to notice the difference between an image made for a small television set in comparison to an image made for a 30" set. Needless to say, unless you point out the differences, they will not be noticeable. Ultrabooks will be successful for the populations that will not be reading this blog entry, that is much of the world where personal computer penetration is low. As for America, it will be difficult to justify the need to replace machines that you are using today.