Dell XPS 13 ultrabook.
(Credit:Dell)
Ultrabook andMacBook Air shipments numbers will grow by about 7 million units in 2013, according to market researcher Gartner.
“We are looking at about 5 percent of total mobile notebook shipments in 2012. that includes Apple’s MacBook Air, which is a big portion of that five percent,” Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner, told CNET.
Kitagawa went on to say that “big” does not necessarily mean more than 50 percent but would not get more specific.
Gartner describes the combination of ultrabooks and the MacBook Air as “ultramobile notebooks.” Typically, ultramobile laptops are under 3.5 pounds and less than 0.8-inches thick.
This year, Gartner expects about 10.7 million units to ship. that number will jump to about 17 million next year, Kitagawa said.
Another market research firm, IDC, said last week that ultrabooks alone would only hit about one million units in 2012. but a few days later, IDC retracted that number, citing insufficient data.