Most Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks will be equipped with hybrid hard drives

Intel will launch the second generation of Ultrabook's Ivy Bridge processor in May.

Intel requires manufacturers to adopt second-generation Ultrabook data read/write speeds by using solid-state hard drives or hybrid hard drives to meet specified targets. Therefore, most vendors expect to use hybrid hard drives to reduce costs.

Sources pointed out that in order to promote Ivy Bridge, Intel will reduce the processor price by 60-70 US dollars. Sources pointed out that as storage devices account for 10-15% of the total laptop production costs, manufacturers will try to reduce storage costs. Because hybrid drives cost less than 128GB and 256GB SSDs, more than 50% of manufacturers will use hybrid drives to provide Ultrabooks that sell for less than $700.

Sources pointed out that Acer’s president Jim Wong predicts that prices of Ultrabooks using hybrid hard drives will drop to 600-700 dollars in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Ultrabook will account for 20% of total notebook shipments in 2012, lower than Intel's 40% target.