HP (along with Dell) will be one of the last major PC makers to enter the market for these sub-0.8-inch, 3-pounds-and-under laptops that compete with Apple's MacBook Air.
"HP had yet to announce its intentions for the Ultrabook market and has been notably quiet as Lenovo, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba have all announced new ultra-thin models," Deron Kershaw, an analyst at GAP Intelligence, said in a research note today.
The world's largest PC maker needs to put all of its weight behind new product launches. The "hangover," as CEO Meg Whitman put it, of the August 18 announcement--when HP stated that it was exploring a spin-off of its PC business--has caused plenty of confusion among customers. "We're very conscious of the pressure that we face in the short term," said Bradley today.
