Intel introduced a new class of mobile computers,’ ultrabook’ taking cues from Apple’s iPad and MacBook Air, to beat the market of laptops.

By the end of 2012, 40 percent of the laptop consumers will shift to the Intel-powered “Ultrabook”, said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation Executive Vice President.

These aluminium silver machines will sport a thickness of less than 20mm and cost less than $1,000.

The Ultrabooks will initially utilize the current generation Sandy Bridge architecture, but, from the first half of 2012, Intel plans to transition Ultrabooks to the next-generation Ivy Bridge processors.

It has close resemblance to Apple’s latest MacBook Air, which was described at its unveiling last October as flaunting the best features of a tablet to become the future of notebooks.

Ultrabooks will marry the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops with tablet-like features and deliver a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design,” Said Maloney.

He also said: “We believe the changes Intel is making to its road maps, together with strong industry collaboration, will bring about an exciting change in personal computing over the next few years”.

At the Computex show, Intel also showed of the next generation of 32nm Atom processor of tablets, “Medfield”, which is optimized for low power and high performance, will run Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb for the first time.

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