Ultrabook, tablet shipments to surge Market watcher DisplaySearch has forecast Ultrabook shipments of around 180m units in 2017 with a steep upward curve through previous years. It hasn't entirely been turned by the Intel Kool Aid, mind. Notebook shipments as a whole will hit, it reckons, 426.6m units that year, so the Ultrabook category will have nabbed just 42. …
"That said, it's clear from DisplaySearch's figures that netbook unit shipments will now fall each year through 2017, down to about 9m units that year."
...The falling figures from DisplaySearch are all projections, the actual figures only show growth.
So, well... we know how statistics are always funny, and we know how statistical projections are mostly hilarious. Didn't your parents tell you not to trust any statistic you didn't skew yourself?
I have a Ver1 Macbook Air that I love and that has been a great laptop (though getting a touch long in the tooth and beat to death). I don't think I truly appreciated the engineering of it until I got a hulking Dell XPS at work that seems less solid and weighs approximately the same as a Hollywood ego. However, the other manufacturers' ultrabooks just don't seem to match the overall engineering quality of the Air. It's little things, and each one individually might not be a big deal, but they add up. It's a product where design, engineering, and attention to detail make a BIG difference, and most PC manufacturers have more of a cut-cost-cut-cost mentality.
One cable for thunderbolt and one for power. My docking station has no cables to connect to the laptop. I just place the laptop on the docking station and it docks.
However I don't think any of the current ultrabooks have any kind of docking provision so that's one more tick in the Air column.
If the air came with a proper keyboard with the Ctrl key in the right place and a hash key I'd buy one and just run windows on it.
Ultrabooks are the future - similar performance to a full sized laptop but much smaller. I have had two netbooks - yes they are cheaper but they are dogs and got very little use. The Macbook Air is a ultra book done the right way - solid state, good battery life, great screen and fast enough to use as a desktop for most requirements.
"If the air came with a proper keyboard with the Ctrl key in the right place and a hash key I'd buy one and just run windows on it."
You can use an external keyboard - either USB extended keyboard or a bluetooth one.
The hash key is just ALT+3 on a Mac keyboard - no big deal. I swapped from Windows 7 to Lion and it was surprising easy. Macbook Air plugged into a 27" Thunderbolt display - beautiful screen and charges the MBA so no need to buy / carry an extra power supply.
"....is a lot of cash to spend on a display just to not carry an extra power supply :p"
Of course that was not the only reason - it's a fantastic display - made 'better' by it being able to charge my Macbook Air - even The Reg agree:
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/12/02/review_apple_thunderbolt_display_27in_monitor/
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