All notebooks to be super skinny in 2 years

Ninety percent of all notebook computers will be less than an inch thick within two years, says Acer's President Mr Jim Wong.The trend for ultra thin notebooks is set to continue at pace according to the President of Taiwanese PC powerhouse Acer who expects to see up to ninety per cent of laptops shedding the extra pounds within two years, following the MacBook Air, Samsung 9 Series and the slew of  new ultrabook launches into the size zero sector.Speaking exclusively to T3 at the company’s Taiwan development centre, Acer President Mr Jim Wong revealed that he believes the days of weighty laptops will soon be behind us, as the trend for lightweight, ultra portable hardware grows.“Two years from now ninety per cent of all notebooks will be less than one inch thick,” said Mr Wong, commenting on the current spate of utlrabooks like the Acer Aspire S3 and ASUS Zenbook that have been brought out to compete with the MacBook Air.This view is backed by Intel who estimate that by the end of 2012, 40 per cent of the consumer laptop market alone will be ultrabooks.But super skinny utlrabooks and notebooks are not the only big changes coming to the PC market according to Mr Wong:“The PC was a brick that first became sexy, then portable and, with the arrival of smartphones, even pocket sized. Now the experience is different and we’re moving to touch and voice, all coming together.”But despite the numerous ultrabook launches, Mr Wong doesn’t see these devices as a long term solution to your PC needs:“The ultrabook does not represent a new industry segment, it’s a trend,” he commented. “The product lifecycle is getting faster and you can see from netbooks that we’re looking at changes as quickly as four years.”