It’s no secret that Apple’s line of Macbook Air’s are selling like hot cakes in the market and the rest of the Windows based manufacturers are trying to play catch up with Apple like portable Ultrabooks. And Apple does not seem to like it at all.
So much so that, Apple is reportedly pressurizing its overseas device assembler, Pegatron to stop producing the Zenbook from Asus, which is very similar to the Macbook Air in design. In fact, report from the China Times seems to suggest that Apple has asked Pegatron to choose sides or risk losing its business with Apple.
And Pegatron is expected to concede and comply with Apple’s demands. Asus will then most probably shift its business with Compal or Wistron, allowing Pegatron to keep their business with Apple intact.
Asus’s Zenbook is based on the Ultrabook specifications given by the chipmaker Intel. And though the Ultrabooks have hit the market since last year, they have not been able to make any considerable impact or dent in the sales of the Macbook Air as was widely expected, primarily due to the high cost of the Ultrabooks.
Though now the manufacturers have begun to undercut Apple’s Macbook Air by slashing the prices of their Ultrabooks, most probably at very thin margins owing to Apple’s domination of the supplier market, particularly with the metal chassis and the unavailability of cheap disk drives in the market.