The Ultrabook promise was always thin and light but without the price tag of older ultraportables, but to date, there’s not been a lot of aggressive ultrabook pricing out there. Acer’s just announced its first salvo aimed at the more cost-conscious end of the market.
$999 will buy you an Acer Aspire Ultrabook with a Core-i3 1.3GHz processor, 320GB hard drive, 13.3 inch Aspire S3-951 laptop, bringing it under that crucial thousand dollar price point. The rest of the Aspire range sits above it; $1,199 buys you the Core i5 version, $1,299 the Core i5 model with 500GB hard drive, $1,599 gets you the Core i5 with a 256GB SSD and the top of the range model has a Core i7 1.7GHz processor and 256GB SSD.
I know there’s some resistance to Ultrabooks given the use of integrated graphics within them, but it seems unlikely to me that we’ll see Acer alone in the sub-$1,000 space for long. That puts pressure on not only the ultrabook market but also the general notebook market as well — and that’s got to be good for everybody. [Acer]