$899

Ultrabook suppliers are still dealing with pesky market and profitability issues, according to a CNET source and two reports. And some will turn to low-cost designs as a result.

"The ultrabook adoption during the holiday season was ugly," an industry source, who speaks to ultrabook suppliers, told CNET. That source was speaking about sales for one particular ultrabook vendor.

The market for all ultrabook suppliers, however, is still challenging. "You've got a down market on the eve of a new operating system (Windows 8) at a price point that's fairly robust (high)," said the … Read more

Ultrabooks from Toshiba, Acer, and Samsung remain at relatively low prices at major retailers like Best Buy compared to analogous offerings from Apple.

Prices for the 13-inch Toshiba Portege (Z835-P330) and 13-inch Acer Aspire S3 (S3-951-6646) have stayed at $799 for many weeks since they were announced last fall. Currently, both are listed at Best Buy for $799.99.

Comparable 13-inch MacBook Air laptops from Apple are typically priced a few hundred dollars more.

Apple is an important benchmark because the ultrabook category was created, in part, to compete with the increasingly popular MacBook Air. And an analyst said this week … Read more

Ultrabooks are available for the first time this holiday season. That calls for a quick survey of pricing since models have debuted at unexpectedly low prices.

As a refresher, ultrabooks are skinny (typically under 0.8 inches thick), lightweight (three pounds or less) laptops that offer mainstream mobile performance.

In short, they attempt to approximate the portability of a tablet while offering more horsepower via Intel processors. And, of course, they run full-blown Windows--not a minor point.

Pricing runs the gamut but the most-recently-released ultrabooks all fall below the $1,000 mark at retailers like Best Buy. That's important … Read more

HP's first ultrabook is now available--and for a limited time below the list price of $899.

The 3.3-pound, 0.7-inch thick Folio 13 was announced on November 15 and has just become available today.

It packs decent hardware for a model that retails for $899, sans coupon code (see graphic). The Folio has a Core i5-2467M processor (not a lower-performance Core i3 like other ultrabooks), 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state drive, a backlit keyboard, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. … Read more

Toshiba's ultrabook will make one of its first appearances at Best Buy for $899, undercutting Apple's 13.3-inch MacBook Air by several hundred dollars.

The super-skinny 0.6-inch thick Z835 is slated to be sold exclusively at Best Buy for $899, according to Laptop Magazine.

Toshiba Portege Z835: That configuration includes a 1366x768 glossy display, magnesium casing, a 1.4GHz Core i3 processor (with Intel HD 3000 graphics), 4GB of memory, an SD card slot, HDMI output, a VGA ports, a USB 3.0 port, and a 128GB solid-state drive. All at only 2.45 pounds.

Apple MacBook Air: By comparison, Apple's least expensive 13.3-inch MacBook Air is priced at $1,299 with a 1440x900 display, aluminum casing, a Core i5 processor (with Intel HD 3000 graphics), 4GB of memory, Thunderbolt port, USB 2.0 ports, SD card slot, and a 128GB SSD. The Air weighs 2.96 pounds.

The Toshiba Z835 isn't the first $899 Windows ultrabook on the block, though. Acer announced its Aspire S3 in October for $899. (See CNET Review here.) … Read more

It's kind of funny when an Italian-language site breaks a wee bit of English-language-based Apple news, but that's what happened when SetteB.IT spotted a small mention of an $899 17-inch iMac for the education market on Apple's own Web site.

Currently, Apple is offering iMacs only in 20- and 24-inch screen sizes. The 20-inch model starts at $1,199, and the 24-incher starts at $1,499.

No word on when the "new" 17-incher will arrive (or if it's really new), but we'll await official confirmation from Apple.

Anybody interested? In this economy, … Read more