The company will probably let the new laptop live outside the regular MacBook Pro line for a few iterations as the laptop improves in price and specs. But sooner or later more MacBook models will adopt these specs and at lower prices. The Ultra Challenge
Now that Apple has taken the wraps off its next-generation device, where does that leave the rest of the PC industry? Ultrabooks and other Windows-based laptops headed your way in the coming months are bound to be interesting once Microsoft releases the touch-friendly Windows 8, expected in October. We should see more touchscreens on laptops, more convertible laptops, and touchpads enhanced with more gestures for the Windows 8 Metro UI. But adapting for touch won't be enough.
Hopefully, computer manufacturers will look at Apple’s new MacBook Pro and realize that Ultrabooks alone just won’t cut it. Intel’s Ultrabook class of laptops are supposed to merge the benefits of tablet computing (fast start-up times, thin and light) with Windows-based laptops (powerful processors, full-sized keyboards).
Those same design concepts being applied to Ultrabooks should be applied across the entire range of Windows laptops. Apple appears to be headed towards an entire line of MacBook Air-like laptops that offer crisp Retina displays, are thin and light, and come loaded with flash storage. To keep pace, Windows laptop makers should start thinking along similar lines.
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