The rise of the ultrabook won't just line the pockets of Intel and the various manufacturers who plan to tap into the burgeoning market. Developers of internal solid state drive cache memory will soon find their products in high demand.
According to IHS, the success of ultrabooks also means "explosive growth" for cache SSDs. The research group believes shipment figures for SSD cache memory will increase from last year's 881,000 units to 25.7 million in 2012. But that's nothing compared to the future forecast: over 68 million SSD units shipped next year, and 121 million by the end of 2015.
The research firm previously named ultrabooks a 2012 technology transformer, predicting that companies will ship 29 million of them by the end of the year. The bulk of those units will contain SSD cache memory in addition to a required hard drive, said Ryan Chien, research associate for memory and storage, IHS.
"Cache SSDs represent a key part of Intel's Ultrabook specification, providing performance, convenience and power-savings capabilities that play a key role in defining the platform," said Chien.
Chien said Intel's claim that by Christmas 2012 there will be more than 60 ultrabooks models available to consumers is proof of the company's strategy.
Hybrid hard drives, which merge NAND and DRAM memory within the traditional HDD form factor, are also prime for growth, the analyst added.
Seagate has already backed the unconventional product, shipping one million units of its 500GB Momentus XT hybrid drive last year. OCZ Technology debuted in September its own 1.1TB model dubbed RevoDrive Hybrid.
Ultrabooks still cost $999 or more, placing them well out of the price range for most consumers. Acer said it will drop the price of its Aspire S3 ultrabook to $799 later this year, but it won't be until 2013 that the next-gen laptops will reach the much more attractive $499 price point. (via IHS)
