While Engadget believes that Intel’s Ultrabook™ ad campaign is extraneous, my SitRep of the ad campaign is the emergence of a new concentration on computing platforms.  What does it all mean?  2012 is the year of the death of netbooks in my opinion if 2011 hasn’t already killed off the hell-spawn known as the netbook.  A floundering global economy, increasing risk to existing business owners, and higher barrier to entry to business have created a situation where people are starting to take a look at what is valuable and what isn’t valuable.  Intel’s Ultrabook™ ad campaign is a sign of a return to traditional computing values.  It means that they are pulling away from producing netbook processors to more robust Core i5 and Core i7 processors in an ultra-light platform which will raise profits and increase the cost of owning a mobile computing solution.  What’s that mean to Joe Consumer out there?  It means that if you really want to have a light notebook computer now, you’ll be paying about USD$1,000 for it and it will be about equal to the 2011 Apple Macbook Air in terms of performance.  Gone are the days of waiting for your netbook to finish computing the e-mail keystrokes you entered almost a minute ago and slow boot times.  We’re looking at better efficiency now and that is what is important.

Has anything changed in the last 10 years?

So how is Intel’s Ultrabook™ different from the laptops of the last 10 years?  It’s not.  It’s just an evolutional change to signify that Intel will be spending their efforts on their Core i5 and Core i7 processors instead of ultra mobile processors such as the Intel Atom and AMD Fusion.  What’s happened is that the whole netbook craze from 2007 to 2011 has left a really bad taste in Joe Consumer’s mouth. Now realizing that they spent about USD$500 on each netbook which made very little profit for even manufacturer’s of the netbooks, and upgrading to newer netbooks over a course of 2 years, they’ve spent more money than what a current Ultrabook would cost and they’ve gotten less work done due to the slow processing times.  Sure, netbooks were cheaper in the short-run but in the long run, we’re looking at a much higher cost of maintenance and upkeep.  Now with the emergence of portable computing tablets using iOS5 and Android flavors, we’re looking at much better efficiency by using less powerful tablets but with faster computing than the netbooks.  All that was made possible by Apple’s iPad in 2010 which was the first viable mobile tablet computing solution.

Is a Mobile Tablet the solution?

So is a Mobile Tablet the solution for Joe Consumer for his computing needs?  Not necessarily.  If Joe Consumer spends his time doing the basics such as browsing the web, reading e-books, listening to music, reading news feeds, replying to e-mails, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, watching videos, and doing some Skype or VOIP, the Mobile Tablet is going to be his best friend.  Why?  The Mobile Tablet gets more battery life on par than netbooks, notebooks, full laptops, and even mobile phones.  It has instant-on technology so waiting for the device to boot is a thing of the past.  It’s lighter weight than a netbook or any laptop so it’s more convenient to use.  It will also process specific tasks using apps that were designed to be used for that function without compromising battery life or aesthetics.  Overall, it’s a much cheaper and better solution for Joe Consumer since it was designed for those simple things that he likes to do.  So what can’t Joe Consumer do on his new, shiny mobile tablet?  He can’t organize his digital pictures too well on it or do his photo editing to a good degree on a mobile tablet (yet).  He can’t organize his music collection unless he has a cloud-computing based service to do it.  He can’t import or edit video to a very complete degree on a mobile tablet.  He also can’t play amazing 3D games, torrent effectively, create a program, soundboard, convert file types, or any decently complicated task.   So the mobile tablet can’t do everything.  It does do most of the daily activities that any reasonable human being can be expected to do.

So why an Intel Ultrabook™?

So what does Joe Consumer do if he wants to have a somewhat mobile computing system that can do what was mentioned above?  He goes and buys the cheapest laptop on the market that can do those things.  If he’s got some cash lying around, he’ll maybe splurge a little and buy something slightly nicer.  If he’s smart he’ll buy an Intel Ultrabook™ for about USD$1,000 if he’s heard of it (If Intel’s marketing campaign works).  If he’s not so smart, maybe he’ll pick up an ancient netbook from some shady 3rd party vendor and he’ll pay USD$500 for something that will blow up on him in less than a year.  While my opinion is that an Ultrabook™ produced for about USD$1,000 seems like a good candidate for purchase, other’s may think about purchasing something a little more robust like a Mac or something that runs a Linux distro well.  It’s all about having something that just works well.  That’s the direction we’re headed and as long as people are using a version of Windows, the Ultrabook™ may be their best bet for something decently powerful and lightweight.  I would however suggest that users take a look at everything in the similar processing power range as an Ultrabook™ since the netbook is now dead.

As a bonus to the new website, NOIR Group has driven down the cost of their NOIR Exchange services by USD$100 to USD$500 per year and doubled their storage per account of their leading 2GB to 4GB NOIR Exchange solution.  Customers have already responded to these price and quality changes with the following comments:

“This is amazing! You’ve reduced the price and increased the services which make my business run.  The transfer process was easy and logging in online or on accessing my information on my iPhone or iPad is simply amazing.  It is a REVOLUTION in how I function.  I know that wherever my business goes, NOIR Group is there to support me.” – Mario Rinaldi, Official USA Representative of Paul Goerg Champagne

“You’ve offered amazing service over the years and have been behind me and my business through good times and bad times.  I KNOW that whatever I do, I’ll have NOIR Group behind me supporting me every step of the way.” – Michael Hershkowitz, Principal of Kingsland Group of New York

“You’re an enterprising company with technology that just works.  Your experience with systems and design help our business to get the most out of our technology.”- Chris Fjelddahl, CEO of Eight Partnership of Hong Kong

NOIR Group LLC was founded in 2002 in New York City with the mission to empower customers around the world to succeed with their businesses by utilizing NOIR Group business services and business solutions.  NOIR Group LLC has consistently created branding, imaging, marketing, financing, and operational solutions for its customers by using the latest stable technologies and leading the way in mobile communications.  For more information, please visit http://www.noirgroup.org .