Apple MacBook Outselling Ultrabooks 10 -1

Only about 500,000 ultrabooks were shipped in the first half of 2012 – a figure that falls far short of chipmaker Intel’s aggressive targets for the thing-and-light notebooks, an IDC analyst said.

“The volume isn’t there and it’s going to be way below what Intel had hoped for,” IDC analyst Jay Chou told CNet, referring to ultrabooks.

Intel had said at the beginning of the year that ultrabooks could take 40 percent of the consumer laptop market. But even if its vendors sell one million units for the full year, it will be only a very small percentage – about 0.4 percent – of the 225 million laptops IDC predicts will be sold during the year.

Meanwhile Apple’s lightweight MacBook Air, whose early success sparked the ultrabook drive – and which also uses Intel chips – continues to dominate the sector.

Apple shipped 2.8 million MacBooks in Q2 alone, suggesting it could do 10-12 million for the full year, compared with the estimated one million by all ultrabook makers combined.