Business Ultrabooks vs Consumer Ultrabooks: Big Differences
A flood of new Ultrabooks, leveraging Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) design specs, will hit the market in June 2012. Sleek, stylish, powerful, portable notebooks. That’s (potentially) awesome. But for VARs and MSPs: Move forward responsibly. Avoid the temptation to sell Consumer Ultrabooks right now and instead focus on Business Ultrabooks that arrive in mid-2012. What’s the difference? The answer is pretty darn simple — but important.
In some cases, resellers are promoting Consumer Ultrabooks to business customers right now. That could be a mistake. Those Consumer Ultrabooks are not easy to manage remotely. They’re less durable. They’re… um… not built for business.
In stark contrast, Business Ultrabooks are expected to arrive in mid-2012, sporting features like Intel vPro. The result? Business Ultrabooks should be easily managed by RMM (remote monitoring and management) software from such companies as Kaseya, LabTech Software, Level Platforms and N-able Technologies, among others.
During the Kaseya Connect 2012 user conference this week in Las Vegas, Intel even hinted that a major upgrade to vPro technology will arrive within weeks. By now, most VARs and MSPs already know the base vPro story: The technology allows VARs and MSPs to remotely manage PCs even if the systems were not powered up by the end-user. Also, vPro offers a range of power saving capabilities, which means ongoing cost savings for customers.
It sounds like some sort of vPro 2.0 technology will arrive very soon. Then, the business-oriented Ultrabooks will debut in mid-2012. And by the end of 2012, watch for Business Ultrabooks that run Windows 8.
In the meantime, channel partners should avoid the temptation to sell consumer Ultrabooks to business customers, since those systems were not designed with corporate executives in mind.
Good article. We are trying to keep our existing clients using windows pcs instead of macs. Since we are in NYC, and in the advertising vertical, we are seeing a huge demand to switch to using consumer macbook pros instead of our standard HP elitebooks. An HP folio will have to fit the bill until we begin to see ultrabook 2.0 machines.
Hector,
The VAR Guy thanks you for that update. The question: Is MacBook Pro really a consumer machine? The VAR Guy is a former MacBook Pro user and liked it — though he shifted away from MacBook Pro after suffering several hard drive failures.
-TVG
[…] Business Ultrabooks vs Consumer Ultrabooks: Big Differences […]
Besides, “Those Consumer Ultrabooks are not easy to manage remotely. They’re less durable. They’re… um… not built for business”, I couldn’t find any real differences between Ultrabooks for Business and for Consumers.
Do you have another article that has BIG DIFFERENCES?
Thanks.
Andre,
Your comment reinforces the big industry problem right now: Real business UltraBooks are not shipping yet. Wait for Intel vPro-type marketing with UltraBooks and that will give you the sign that business UltraBooks have arrived…
-TVG