Ultrabook Minus Sleekbook Equals $150
A prospective laptop buyer enters a store and lingers at the HP section. A salesperson comes over and asks "Can I help you with anything today?".
Customer: "Well, I really like these thin laptops - I've heard they have good battery life too?"
Salesperson: "Yes, that's one of the features of the HP Ultrabook models, and they start at around $750."
Customer (looking a bit disappointed): "Oh? That's a bit more that I was looking to spend..."
Salesperson: "Well, HP now also has this line of "Envy" model Sleekbooks, starting at around $600 - they have many of the same features as the Ultrabooks, including great battery life."
Customer perks up. Another triumph in the arena of branding!
HP's new line of "Sleekbook" laptops carries over much from the Intel Ultrabook form factor, but uses AMD chips and are priced significantly lower. Because the term "Ultrabook" is an Intel definition and trademark, HP just came up with something else that conveys the same kind of concept.
The "almost ridiculously thin" notebook form factor was popularized by the Macbook Air of course; thin, light and with much-better-than-netbook performance, but still with great battery life, it is very popular - and pricey.
Intel hit back with their Ultrabook specification, giving a similar kind of device based upon Intel hardware, and running Windows. In the latest wrinkle, HP has introduced their own flavor, hewing quite closely to the Ultrabook spec, but allowing for AMD chips and physical dimension changes outside of the Intel definition.
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