HP to Be First to Market With Intel Ultrabooks?

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As notebook computers become thinner and lighter, Intel introduced the concept of the Ultrabook, which are notebooks competing directly with the MacBook Air and even tablet computers. While manufacturers are working on their own designs, it looks like HP might be able to release an ultrabook soon.

Intel’s Ultrabook concept involves an ultra-thin design that lets notebook manufacturers make computers as thin as 0.8 inches thick, almost similar to the MacBook Air‘s 0.68 inch. Asus is supposedly working on the UX21 for a September release, but sources say HP might be able to release an Ultrabook soon, with ODM Foxconn already shipping units to HP for distribution. This means we might see HP Ultrabooks sometime this month or August.

HP’s Ultrabook models will come with an ultra-thin Core i7-2677M processor running at 1.8 GHz or i7-2637M running at 1.7 GHz. No other specs have been cited, although Asus’ own UX21 is said to be produced with 11.6 and 13-inch form factors.

With Intel’s Ultrabook platform, will ultra-thin notebook computers become mainstream? And will these thin-and-light notebook computers be good alternatives or complementary products to tablet computers?