Hoping for Ultrabook prices to plummet before you take the plunge? You may have to wait a while. These skinny laptops won't hit the $599-699 (£379-442) band until 2013, notebook manufacturers reckon.

And this glum forecast is shared by component makers, DigiTimes says. They believe that while SSDs in particular are so pricey, as too are come of the custom-made casing parts and thinner display panels that Ultrabooks use, prices are not going to fall significantly in the short term.

The raft of second-generation Ultrabooks expected in Q2, all on the back of Intel's new Ivy Bridge chip platform, will come in at around $799 - rather better than the $999 price point the first generation was pegged at.

However, say the moles, getting the price to that new, lower level will stop vendors making much of a profit on the machines they sell. ®