Intel and Ultrasuede create fashy notebook

Intel and Ultrasuede decided many notebooks look way to boring so they have collaborated on creating a design concept of a ultrafasionable notebook. The unique result of their collaboration is a laptop design that screams chic, featuring Ultrasuede to deliver a unique and luxurious personal touch to mobile computing, along with the performance, mobility and wireless computing capabilities provided by Intel Centrino mobile technology.

They feature ultra micro-fiber Ultrasuede fabric integrated directly into the casing of Intel Centrino mobile technology-based laptop PCs, changing not only the look but also the feel of the system. Intel Centrino mobile technology trims weight off a traditional laptop PC and provides wireless communications features with great battery life, while the unique Ultrasuede design appeals to consumers’ sense of style, providing a sophisticated, personalized approach to tote-able, go-everywhere technology.

As laptop PCs have become smaller and more mobile, people are conscious of what they say about personal style. A recent Intel/Ultrasuede Laptop Style Study1 found that 73 percent of U.S. adult computer users want to buy technology products that reflect their personal style, and 76 percent of those computer users who admit to glancing at someone else’s laptop PC are checking out its style or design.

“Intel’s technology innovation, coupled with the plush luxury of Ultrasuede fabric, offers a marriage of form and function with unlimited potential for fashionable personal expression,” said Jodi Geniesse, consumer mobile education manager, Intel Corporation. “Intel has continually evolved what goes inside laptops, making them ever more powerful, mobile and connected, and now we are working to inspire the industry to transform the outsides of laptops to better reflect consumers’ mobile lifestyle.”

Forty percent of U.S. adult computer users find their laptop to be generic, boring, dull, sterile or lackluster, and 60 percent would like to be able to customize their laptop with options such as color, patterns and fabric1. Ultrasuede, with its durability and ease-of-care, wide range of colors and textures and unique luxurious feel is an ideal candidate to transform the look and feel of laptop PCs. It has been successfully incorporated into hundreds of products from furniture to apparel to accessories.

“With technology becoming more and more a part of our lives, this was a natural extension for Ultrasuede,” said Des McLaughlin, director for sales and marketing for Toray Ultrasuede. “Our fabric has always conveyed luxury, fashion and style, whether in high-end automobiles, living rooms or apparel. Like Intel, we are constantly looking to enable new and exciting products and uses for consumers. We believe the integration of Ultrasuede onto a laptop PC can help lead to a category shift that will add personal expression to the list of must-have laptop PC features.”

Once just a productivity tool for business travelers to stay in touch with the office and customers, laptop PCs are no longer the sole domain of business users. Industry analyst firm IDC anticipates the notebook market for consumers to grow over the next five years with shipments in the United States expected to grow by 34 percent in 2006.