LAS VEGAS — Thin, light laptops –known as “ultrabooks” – are a much-hyped category at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, an annual showcase for the latest smartphones, tablet computers and other consumer-electronic devices.
Deep-pocketed chipmaker Intel Corp. created the term to push PC makers to make laptops that are more like Apple’s Macbook Air, and help them market them. Practically every PC maker is showing off at least one ultrabook at the show. Hewlett-Packard Co. is talking up its own ultrabook, dubbed the HP Envy 14 Spectre, this week. The HP model has a few features that set it apart.
HP’s Envy includes a sensor for Near-Field Communications, the radio standard used by security cards and so-called “smart tags,” which are small chips with flat, stamp-sized radio antennas. That means that it can read information from NFC tags and upcoming smartphone models when they’re bumped against the laptop. For instance, a promotional flier might include a tag with a special Web address that appears on-screen when touched to the laptop.
There’s a movement to make NFC the basis for tomorrow’s payment cards, and to build NFC into smartphones. That means someone with an NFC-enabled laptop could, in the future, pay securely for an online purchase by tapping a payment card to the computer. Intel Corp. demonstrated this procedure at a press conference at the show, with a prototype laptop.
The Envy’s NFC capability may never progress beyond the ability to grab Web addresses from phones and promotional materials. The business relationships and networks needed to make NFC-enabled payments ubiquitous have been slow to emerge, as many different players are jockeying for position.
IDC analyst Williams Stofega said NFC has a lot of potential as part of the trend of “tangible computing” – getting the things around us to talk to each other intelligently, to make our lives easier. But the lack of standards is a big obstacle.
Also at the show:
Motorola Mobility and Lenovo on Tuesday said they will use Intel processors in smartphones and other devices, giving the chipmaker its first entry into a market it has long coveted. Intel Corp. has struggled to bring down the power consumption of its chips so that they can be used in phones without draining the battery in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, phone-style chips from other manufacturers are starting to encroach on Intel’s PC chips, by becoming the chips of choice for tablet computers.
An Amazon.com executive said Tuesday that the retailer has signed a deal with a Hollywood studio to sell movies that can be downloaded from an online “locker” system five studios have put together.
The extent of Amazon.com Inc.’s support of the UltraViolet online locker system is unclear. But the deal signals that Amazon is at least open to trying it. Studios are hopeful that UltraViolet is attractive enough to consumers that they keep buying movies rather than renting, which is less profitable for studios.
“We’re excited about additional possibilities,” said Bill Carr, executive vice president of digital media at Amazon. Carr didn’t name the studio. He was speaking on a panel about UltraViolet at the International Consumer Electronics Show.
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