The start of another week brings another update on the state of affairs of the laptop market. Prepare to end up disappointed if you were expecting encouraging signs, though.
Once again the market left us underwhelmed, and things are not poised to take off in September, either.
Shipments, as you may recall, remained slow during the month of July, eventually recording an on year down of 20 percent among the top five hardware vendors. And they did not budge in this outgoing month of August, either, the latest data shows.
This gloomy little report suggests that notebook vendors adjusted their reserves and held off on new orders for the month of August.
One reason for this is the forthcoming IFA 2013 — set to take place in Berlin, Germany next week. All the top vendors are expected to make an appearance at the event in order to showcase their latest products to the world.
Second is obviously the wait for Windows 8.1. Microsoft is said to have finished development work on the RTM build of the upcoming operating system, and the company is expected to start delivering it to OEM partners this week, meaning the laptop makers will test and deploy the OS on their new machines.
Either way, the initial splash that Intel Haswell was expected to make did not entirely happen, at least not on the ultrabooks front. With September once again pegged as a slow month, all hopes for business picking up now lie with October and beyond.
By this date, obviously, Windows 8.1 should be out in the wild — and with it several new devices.
There will never be a splash if there are no devices available!!!!
Sony was the first to the market but most people saw the teases by samsung at their ativ event and Asus and Dell at Computex. Consumers want to have a choice. that’s why none is buying ultrabooks right now. There is just not enough choice and competition