[citation][nom]aznshinobi[/nom]Ultrabooks aren't falling short imo. They perform well and I've seen the benches, they are amazing. It is just the prices are a bit too high and consumers are being brainwashed. A 15" Macbook Pro is $2000 yet people choose that over a same spec'd Asus Zenbook Prime for about $500-$600 less. Granted the Ultrabooks are 2" smaller. But still... IT MAKES 0 SENSE TO ME. Sigh, the ignorance of consumers.[/citation]
The same specs?!? Apple's main selling feature for their 15" Pros is the retina display and I don't think anyone else is offering a matching screen yet.
I think Apple (most likely unwillingly) laid a mean marketing trap to other manufacturers. Apple's goods are perceived as being very expensive but very high quality as well. However, in the last few years they've been pricing their products pretty competitively, although a lot of folks would not agree. Apple also explored many new niche sectors very suitable for their customer base (luxury tablets - and tablets are only that, ultra portable laptops). Their competitors were natively drawn in to COMPETE effectively for Apple's natural customer base. Unfortunately for the competitors they not only failed to compete in prices, but failed to match the quality (especially build quality and ease of use). And they were competing with Apple for customers that are naturally drawn to the latter being perceived as expensive (which is not a factor in this specific competition as we are looking at a high end market) but making quality products.